Kingdom Knights
by Rosa Angelicus
Summary: A KH parody of the mahou-shojo genre. The Fantasy Realm is slowly dying, and its fate is now in the hands of the Kingdom Knights, those born with the pure hearts of the Princesses of Light. Of course, it was never stated that the knights had to be girls. Total OOC for the most part, silliness, with a possible dash of ye olde BL. Episode 7 is up!
1. Episode 1: Prelude to Change

**A/N: **I have a confession.

My guilty pleasure in life is PreCure (or Pretty Cure if you want to be pedantic). Every part of my inner writer is reviled by the story, the cliches, heck even the character stereotypes that you get in them. And yet...

And yet at the moment my Monday afternoon is usually swept away as soon as the cheery opening theme tune of Smile PreCure is turned on! OAO

And from there on this little attempt at a parody was born. Considering that Kingdom Hearts as a thriving male community in its cast and a feminine cast that only numbers a paltry nine from the Square Enix team (did not include the Disney cast), that may or may not expand considerably since The World Ends With You is being connected to the KH franchise ((oh god, this is almost perfect)), I thought the series lended itself perfectly to a magical _boy_ perspective. Technically speaking... it isn't that far off from the genre. It's just missing the transformation scenes (and yes; I will be making them so long that it seems ridiculous that an enemy hasn't attacked them yet).

You'll have to bear with me though; currently I'm having laptop transferral issues (i.e. I broke my old laptop's screen and a lot of my fanfiction and university work is on it so I'll have to sort out a transfer to the new laptop the cheapest way possible). While I'm fortunate enough that I managed to get the latest updates of EA and AnR done and dusted, the new chapters and notes for them are not in my possession at the moment.

Until then, please take this silly little introductory chapter as an apology for possibly taking even longer than usual to get the other two chapters out. Thank you for choosing to read this! Please enjoy and leave a review :D ((it gives me an idea of whether to continue this little bout of silliness or not))

**WARNING:** Will most definitely contain boyslove (I'm a shounen-ai/yaoi/slash writer. Can't ever forget my roots). Just won't be so overt since romance is not a huge preoccupation with modern day magical animes (or at least, not as big a preoccupation as saving the world from evil and whatnot). Will poke fun at cliches and whatnot. Will probably make references to the many many magical girl animes, manga, comics or other spoofs that you can find dotted around (done my research). I am not liable if I accidentally break your minds with my choice of "magical boys"; also will not be being completely faithful to all character personalities in the game. This fiction may or may not cause fits of giggles, rage or other strong emotional reflexes.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

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><p><strong>~~<em>The Prelude of Change<em>~~**

The old sorcerer watched with eagle sharp, world weary eyes as yet one more star blinkered out of existence, followed by another one. His hand stroked his long grey beard, a habit done out of the anxiousness he felt.

The world that he had painstakingly created with the help of others when fantasy and magic were starting to become threatened by human fear, the sanctuary made for the stories that had faded away into folklore and legend, was in danger. With every star flickering out, another source of the Fantasy Realm's energy had disappeared, possibly even eaten away. Only few places remained, and many others damaged to a point that not even the denizens of the Fantasy Realm could ever hope to repair by themselves. Another star flickered in its dying moments.

"Time is running out…"

* * *

><p>Disney Town and Castle stood as one of the remaining places that was still intact, acting has a place of refuge for citizens of the other domains within the Fantasy Realm that escaped from their disappearing homes. The colourful town was struggling under the weight of responsibility towards many of the refugees, some becoming greyer and greyer every day, memories of their homes disappearing or being destroyed haunting both their sleeping and waking moments. With the king gone fighting against the source of the negative forces eating away at the life energy of the Fantasy Realm, the small kingdom's queen was left with the task of the care of every person that lived there or seek out shelter under its banner.<p>

As she sat in her husband's study, she listened carefully to an old friend and great advisor's words; the Wizard Merlin. She smiled quietly every time the old coot accidentally stepped on his ridiculously long beard or got it trapped in some nook in the furniture. It was a little amusement in a town that hadn't seen much in the way of laughter for a long time. Even the shining white walls of her castle home seemed to be growing greyer by the day.

"As I was saying," the wizard said irritably, having had his pet owl Archimedes pull his beard out of a crack in the desk, "the seven jewels have finally been crafted and now is the time to search them out in the human world. If we don't send guides to them now, the Fantasy Realm will all but disappear." He then looked at her gravely, his face serious through his bushy beard and moustache. "This is our only chance now, Minnie."

She nodded her head, scratching one of her large, velvety black ears with a gloved hand. It had taken a long time for every piece of their solution to the problem to fall into place. If they didn't act now there would be no second chance. "Summon the strongest survivors of those dominions to the throne room." She stood from her seat, watching as the enchanted broomsticks that were waiting upon her orders suddenly left the room.

* * *

><p>Queen Minnie Mouse sat on the throne of her absent husband, her trusted aide Lady Daisy Duck on one side, Merlin on the other. Daisy held a small wooden box in her feathery hands, her eyes fixated on the door as it opened. Minnie herself couldn't help but keep her gaze fixed, watching as a ragtag group of many appeared in the throne room beside the Court Wizard and the Captain of the Guard. She recognised them all from the first batch of refugees that escaped their disappearing homelands.<p>

Two little house-mice from the Castle of Dreams, one dressed in red and the other in yellow and green.

A crab and a seagull from the far-off shores and seas of Atlantica. The crab was clinging onto the seagull's feathery white back for dear life.

A clock, a candelabra and a little teacup that could move, talk and do anything any normal creature of the Fantasy Realm could do from the Beast's Castle.

Three good fairies, though elderly in appearance, that were strong enough to escape the Enchanted Dominion. One dressed in red robes, another in green, and the last in blue.

A small white rabbit in a red waistcoat and carrying an overly large golden pocket-watch that was barely ticking now; he came from the mysterious and strange Wonderland.

A towering bright blue genie, accompanied by a small monkey in a purple vest and red fez, and a red cawing macaw parrot that was known to be a chatterbox from the distant desert lands of Agrabah. The parrot had the genie's lamp in his orange talons.

With a heavy heart, she noticed that there was not one person or creature here from the Dwarf Woodlands. That would mean she would have to send one of her own to protect the one with the heart of that land's princess. She jumped from her seat and stood to her full height just as they approached her.

"As you are all aware of what is happening to the Fantasy Realm, time is now of the essence. The seven hearts of light that your homes' princesses all had have now reincarnated and matured in the human world. Now they must help us in the human world." She nodded to Daisy; her lady-in-waiting opened the box to show seven jewels, each one a colour of the rainbow, nestled on a bed of deep-blue crushed velvet. "These jewels will guide you to one of the princesses, awakening the capabilities of their current form, including the use of the keyblades." She closed her eyes; the Princesses of Light, as they were once known in life, were able to create keyblades from their hearts, but as there was never any need for them, that power lay forgotten in the analects of time. If there was ever a time to remember it, it was now.

Daisy was passing the jewels around, telling each group which coloured stone represented their princess. Minnie watched as the shines of orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and indigo glistened in the hands of the groups; the red jewel was left.

"Donald, Goofy, were there none strong enough from the Dwarf Woodlands?" Minnie asked the Court Wizard and Captain of the Guard.

"None Queen Minnie," Donald quacked. "Any survivors from there are just too weak to make the journey to the human world."

"Gawrsh Queen Minnie," Goofy mumbled, "what are we gonna do 'bout poor Snow White?"

Minnie nodded, knowing what had to be done. "Donald, Goofy, you both must go to the human world and find the one with Snow White's heart. Even without just one heart of light we could put the Fantasy Realm's recovery in danger." She glanced at the duck and dog with a regal commanding look; although they seemed worried, they seemed unwilling to question. "This is a most urgent task I place on all of you. Find the hearts, help them to defeat the Heartless that are eating away at the Imagination in human hearts."

"But how will we find them?" asked the little teacup from the Beast's Castle.

"The seven brightest stars in the sky," Minnie replied. "I shall transport you to those stars, but it will be up to you once you reach the human world from those stars."

"Stars?" the teacup asked, looking to the clock and candelabra.

"They say that the stars are the hearts of humans," the clock explained.

"If the stars are the quickest way to them, then let us make haste," the red fairy said firmly. There was a shared nod of agreement from the rest of the group. Minnie herself nodded but she had fears; what if they left but had no way of returning? She felt Merlin's gaze on her; something soothing seemed to exude from him even though she wasn't looking.

"Then I will send you to the human world," Minnie announced, raising her hand to the skies. The red jewel was securely in Donald's hand. "When you are there, you must make sure that no one, but the seven forms the Princesses of Light have taken, knows of the Fantasy Realm. Take any precautions necessary to safeguard the secrecy of our home." She closed her eyes, whispering magical words while feeling the warmth of magic in her hand. "For the sake of our home… please find them."

Seven beams of light, each a colour of the rainbow, appeared, taking the group from the throne room and into the sky, heading to the seven brightest stars. Minnie watched; all of their hopes now lay in their hands.

* * *

><p>Sora Fujimoto was someone who only stood out from the crowd for one fact. It wasn't his appearance; he had blue eyes and a sun-worshipper's complexion, his mahogany hair styled and spiked in what was a popular fashion of the day. It wasn't the school uniform he wore, even though the summer uniform consisted of blue plaid trousers, white short-sleeved button-up shirt and blue plaid tie, something of an eyesore to public view. What made him truly stand out was the seven little brothers and sisters he had to take care of while his dad was working extra shifts again. Even more astounding of seeing the fifteen-year-old surrounded by seven little brothers and sisters, that all these siblings of his were septuplets.<p>

"Aki! I'm watching you! Don't you dare!" The seven-year-old boy, who proudly claimed to be the eldest, stopped in his tracks, pouting as he put his hand down; it was holding an opened water bottle, only moments before threatening to spill the contents down his sister's shirt. Sora sighed; Aki was always the one trying to assert his authority, and his sister Ki was always trying to subvert it. At least Daidai was easy; he was eating an orange. "Midori! Mura! Don't go off!" Those two brothers on the other hand were more likely to wander off and Sora would be running after them like a headless chicken. Behind him, Ai and Ao were talking to each other.

When they were perfectly behaved and following after him, some of the women in the neighbourhood that they lived in likened them to a mother duck and her brood of ducklings. Right now, Sora felt like he had to deal with brown-haired and blue-eyed little monsters. "A_ki_!" The oldest septuplet had splashed water at the third oldest while Sora had been preoccupied with Midori and Mura.

There goes the Fujimoto brood, they would say. They would also say, 'there goes the seven dwarves and their caretaker. They just need a Snow White now.'

Sora firmly believed that they were doing fine without the 'original' Snow White; she left a good set of instructions for her eldest child to follow after her passing.

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><p>Roxas Taylor used to have a charmed life. He had two parents that doted upon him as he grew up without a want in the world, lived in a large house that almost seemed like a castle to his childhood eyes and a plethora of friends to rely on. Three tragedies took all that away. His mother died in a car accident that his father had survived, her last breath spent on a hospital bed as her son and husband wept over her passing. That had been the first tragedy. The second came in the form of a step-mother and her daughter, both of whom were especially cruel to him. The final tragedy was when his dad died in mysterious circumstances, the conclusion coming to suicide. Now Roxas was pretty much treated like a servant by his step-mother and step-sister, though he often thanked his lucky stars that his situation was no where near as dire as the little cinder girl from the tales he was told as a child.<p>

He was allowed to go to school, though his step-sister had made it impossible for him to have many friends. He had a room, even though it was basically the attic rather than just the kitchen floor. He had some freedom, though chores always came first. But his step-mother never appeared to be as wicked as that same relative of Cinderella's. Strict, but never abusive. The same couldn't be said of his step-sister Larxene.

"Move it Sucks-Ass!" Roxas counted to ten in his head as he sidestepped closer to the wall, giving Larxene room to manoeuvre past him and his huge pile of laundry that he had to do. It didn't pay to fight back against her; she'd simper to his step-mother and paint a portrait of him as the villain. If there was anything cruel about his step-mother, it was the distance she put between him and her, including her long absences from home for business reasons and blind eye over the truth of her daughter's behaviour. He forced himself to smile.

"Sorry Larxene. My mistake." He had to swallow a lot of pride to make him even spit out the words. She just whacked some laundry off the top of his pile, stalking off up to her bedroom. He sighed, putting his basket down and going back to fetching the fallen pieces.

He used to not want anything, and now more than ever did he want just a helping hand or someone to just listen to him vent about his situation without fear of it being reported back to his step-relatives. He wanted to escape. But who was he kidding? He was no Cinderella. There was no one going to come for him.

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><p>Demyx Lowell was what his mother called a water baby. He was more at home in the water than he was on the land, and everything seemed to revolve around the water in his life. His bedroom was painted in watery colours, his shelves were decorated with all sorts of finds from his ventures along the shore and a wall in the house show cased his incredible swimming talents. He was even a gifted musician as well, preferring the sitar above all. You would not find a mother more proud of her son than Mrs. Lowell, but neither would you find one more worried.<p>

Demyx's fascination with the sea could be dangerous in her mind. There were many times that she fretted that she had lost her precious boy to its murky depths, and many times she wondered if what she had given birth to was in fact a merman rather than a human boy. It was today that she was fretting again about whether her boy was safe or not; he had wandered off to the shore no doubt but he had said nothing about it to her. She knew he would frolic about in the surf in just his underwear if there was no one around. She knew he would try to swim farther and deeper into the water. The fear that he might never come back one night was very real.

It was about to turn six in the evening when he finally arrived in her doorway, hair dripping wet and school uniform hurriedly put on. She looked at him, her teal eyes showing the growing worry she had for her son. His inherited eyes just smiled back at her. "Hi Mom. What's for dinner?"

"You've been at the shore again," she said. This was too much for her poor heart.

"Yeah. What's the problem?" Demyx asked her, looking totally oblivious to what his antics was doing to her. He walked past her, heading for the stairs. "I'll be in my room if you need me. I've got to practice for tomorrow."

"Don't try to scoot around the issue here Demyx." Her voice grew firmer as the frustration pent up inside her small frame. This was the last straw. "You promised me you'd be home by four thirty. You're an hour and a half late."

"I lost track of time, alright. I'm here now." He was climbing the stairs.

"Demyx!" He had already disappeared into his room. She frowned heavily.

She had little idea that her little merman would be stumbling upon something truly remarkable tomorrow morning when he snuck out to the shore again.

* * *

><p>Squall Leonhart –preferred name 'Leon'– didn't have an exactly normal home life. He had two parents that did care for him with the same sort of love and devotion found in any parent. It was just that… Leon was just embarrassed by his father.<p>

Leon's parents lived separate lives. His mother, Raine Leonhart, ran a gastro pub within the town centre that he sometimes helped out with on weekends when he was staying around hers, but he lived with his father, Laguna Loire, since his house was closer to Leon's school. Leon wasn't the type to complain but… when his father wasn't doing his job as a travel journalist, he was trying to invent something in his basement. Which of course meant that he had gained himself the reputation as the local crazy man in town, sometimes even causing local disturbances (read: explosions) with his inventions. Which didn't really explain why Leon was staring at the leader of the self-proclaimed school disciplinary committee with annoyance.

Although he would never say it out loud, Leon was quite comfortable with his homosexuality. He didn't really attract attention to himself since he always buried his face in a book during the little free time he could get, and he tended to hide his capabilities in more 'girly' practices by keeping up with his kendo training rigidly. Even so, somehow the head of the disciplinary committee had found out about it and seemed to make it his mission to try and 'woo' him in a way that only he knew. It wasn't working.

Currently, Leon's book was in Seifer's hands. "What on earth are you reading? It doesn't make sense without pictures."

"Sometimes Seifer, people don't need pictures to imagine what's going on," Leon retorted, swiping the book back before trying to push past him. "Now if you excuse me, I have a project on this book to finish tonight." At that moment he heard a bang coming from where his house was. With a heavy sigh, he added, "And a mess to clean up as well."

All was well in Leon's rather abnormal life. If you told him that he had something of a beast of a fate to deal with in only a day's time, he wouldn't have believed you.


	2. Episode 2: Awaken Snow Knight

**A/N:** In the reference book so far we have:

1) Lilpri (magical girl anime based on fairytales (like Smile PreCure only much much much more overt) of which the main characters get discovered through the medium of crystals by magical animal companions. However, the show is more like three little girls get magic powers to grow up into teenagers and sing as a J-Pop group called (wait for it…) 'Lilpri' (or Little Princesses))

2) Almost every magical girl anime in the world that centres around school girls being given magic powers of some descript.

3) In this episode, Donald and Goofy's forms in the human world is a direct reference to what they had to do for the live action Sailor Moon for the characters of Luna and Artemis (i.e. use stuffed toys; cats don't really like having make up put on them).

4) One reference to Heartcatch PreCure. It surrounds mostly around the Heartless, but I'm sure you can get it. (Answer will appear in next week's episode XD)

I wrote this in two days. This should give you the basic outline of what most of the 'episodes' will be like. Basically: like any other magical girl anime. Stand alone, one monster, maybe two an episode. Basic theme of what the magical people is question will be taking their powers from.  
>Thank you kindly for the reading and reviews so far! Much appreciated :D xx<p>

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><p><em><strong>~~Awaken Snow Knight!~~<strong>_

Sora's day had begun normally enough. Wake up at 6:30, shower, brush teeth, change into uniform, wake the septuplets at 6:45, get them to change into their outfits for the day, make them all breakfast while saying goodbye to their Dad before he rushed out for work at 7, wrangle them all into jackets and shoes by 7:15 and start walking to their elementary school for 7:45. It gave him time to catch the bus to his school at 7:56 in the next street over and be at Destiny High school gate by 8:15.

With septuplets, you had to give yourself a lot of time to do anything. He reckoned he ought to get a medal for what he had to do.

Today however something strange had happened. That morning he had found two rather sorry looking plushies in his locker. It was a mystery how they had gotten in there because it didn't look like his lock's mechanism had been in any way tampered with.

"Hey! Sora!" The brunet turned to where he saw his two best friends. Tidus and Wakka were on the Destiny High's blitzball team, with Tidus being the 'Ace' of the team. A lot of people didn't really expect either of them to be friends with Sora since he was something of an average student. Nothing special about Sora really, only that he was Tidus and Wakka's childhood friend. Tidus was running up to him, Wakka following a little bit behind. "Early as usual. How the hell do you do it?"

"Good timing I guess," Sora laughed, taking the two plushies out.

"Eh? Those from the girls?" Wakka asked as he approached them, referring to Sora's three little sisters.

"No I just found them in my locker," Sora replied, looking them over. It wasn't bad craftsmanship whoever made them, but it was clear to Sora that they were homemade.

"Ohhh ho ho ho, Sora you dog," Tidus grinned, elbowing his childhood friend in the side. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you had a secret admirer. He yelped as Wakka ruffled his hair roughly and pushed the school Ace down.

"Ignore the idiot, ya. You know what he gets like around girls."

"I know," Sora smiled, deciding it was probably best to just get them to lost property. If no one claimed them, then surely they would just get put into the charity box. Some kid will probably love them. He took a closer look at the duck plushie dressed in a sailor's outfit. The stitching on his side was a little loose. "I'm going to go and put these in the lost property. I'll see you guys at class."

"Sora! Don't! You'll only destroy that poor maiden's he-!" Tidus was once again silenced by Wakka. The orange-haired fifteen-year-old had gripped his blond friend by the ear.

"See you there then Sora."

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><p>Donald Duck's magic had turned him and Goofy into plushies upon arrival in the realm of humans, though his first annoyance was that they seemed to have gotten themselves teleported into a prison of some sort when they left the Fantasy Realm to find the one born with the pure heart of Snow White. Goofy had then suggested that their 'prison' might actually be a box of some sort that belonged to the person they were looking for. That, and there was no way of getting out of it from the looks of things.<p>

To Donald's further annoyance, Goofy was right. To an extent.

Now they were stuck in something called a 'lost property box' in a new place, but Donald had managed to piece together that he was in a school (they had schools in Disney Town; mostly teaching the merits of laughter), and that the 'locker' they had been trapped in belonged to a boy. In his estimation, the crystal had completely mistaken the boy for the one they were looking for. Maybe a miscalculated flight plan?

"Donald," Goofy whispered as soon as it was safe for them to talk. "What if that boy really was the one we're looking for?"

"Don't be dumb Goofy!" Donald hissed through his now velour beak. "Princesses are girls! That must mean that they were reborn as girls!" He then managed to wiggle out with a stuffed white hand the red crystal they had been entrusted with. It was glowing vibrantly. "But she must be here in this school! It's reacting!"

"But how are we gonna find them?"

"We just make the crystal take us to her," Donald replied; he was still very certain that it was a girl they were looking for. Goofy seemed open to the idea of a boy being a Kingdom Knight. Stupid dog cartoon thing. He grabbed Goofy's hand. "Remember, keep thinking of Snow White and we will be with her in no time!"

"Well I know that…" Goofy and Donald started thinking hard about Snow White. Her snowy complexion, her ebony hair, her red, red lips and her sweet nature. Her kindness to animals and her almost maternal caring of her seven dwarven caretakers. Surely her reborn self would be just like that!

In a flash of red light they were teleported from the box… and they found themselves in darkness again, only this time there was even less room! And a lot more stuff with them. "Oh for…!" Donald started quacking in irritation.

Yet another prison.

* * *

><p>It was at lunchtime when Sora found himself leaping away from his bag in surprise. Situated snuggling amongst his lunch box and books for the day, he saw the big stitched and painted eyes of the two plushies he swore he had given to lost property. It was a good thing he was alone; Tidus would tease him about "seeing that light" and "accepting the true feelings of a maiden heart". He sighed; whoever got them back went to great lengths to give them to him. Maybe Tidus was right.<p>

"But who would even pay attention to someone like me?" Sora muttered, taking the two plushies out and looking at them. Even if they looked like they could do with some patching up, whoever made them clearly wanted to send their feelings out to him. He just wasn't sure if he was ready for that kind of thing. Something caught his eye in the split in the duck's seam. "Hmm? What's this?"

He plucked out what looked like a red crystal from the inside of the duck; if he had paid attention to the toy he would have noticed the look of panic in its face. "Huh… this is really quite pretty." The crystal itself was shaped like a heart atop a small crucifix, and it seemed to sparkle in the autumnal sunshine. He held up to the sun; the bright red of the crystal seemed to just cheer him up. If this really was a gift, it really was a nice one. It was just too bad he didn't know who gave it to him. The crystal itself looked way too pretty to just give away. "Ah… sometimes I wish I was more like Tidus. He's got more courage than I do." Because at the heart of it, Sora just didn't have the same sort of bravery Tidus had in all things. All he was really good at was being a surrogate parental figure to his seven siblings.

"Maybe if I put them back in lost property they'll take the hint," he hoped, ready to put the crystal away. His fingers slipped around it, causing him to drop it. What happened next set into motion the biggest change of his life. The duck plushie had leapt out of his hand and caught the crystal in its velour hands just before it hit the ground. It then turned on him, and the scene just became even weirder.

"WHAT KINDA KLUTZ DROPS A PRICELESS JEWEL LIKE THIS? HONESTLY IF MY MAGIC WASN'T ALREADY LIMITED I WOULD HAVE THUNDAGA-ED YOU INTO NEXT WEEK!"

Sora screeched in shock and really did jump away this time, dropping the dog plushie on its head and causing the poor toy to yelp in pain. "T-Talking… toy…" he started slowly.

"Ah…" the duck started, looking like he just realised his mistake. The dog plushie was standing to its feet. "Ah… Goofy, I may have just blown our cover…"

"A-hyuk, and I'd say we found just the person~" the dog –Goofy– answered, looking pleased. "We aren't starting to disappear."

"Hey…. You're right," the duck replied, checking himself to make sure he wasn't 'disappearing' as Goofy had put it. "But that means… that means Snow Knight… is a boy?"

"Snow… Knight?" Sora asked, finally finding his voice.

"Has to be. If it was anyone else, we would have disappeared back to Fantasy Realm or somewhere else and Queen Minnie would get upset!"

"I'm not so certain…" The duck finally looked at Sora. "I mean he looks nothing like Snow White."

"A-hyuk~ There was nothing in the legends that said a Kingdom Knight had to look like their previous reincarnation."

_Okay… just slowly back away… maybe when you wake up this will all be a dream_. Sora tried to shift away from the talking toys, hoping that maybe he could get away. No luck. The duck and dog combo had jumped into Sora's lap as soon as they noticed him trying to escape.

"Listen! I really would have thought a girl would be Snow Knight since girls tend to accept this sort of thing a lot better than boys, but beggars can't be choosers! My name is Donald Duck and this is Goofy! We came from the Fantasy Realm and we need your help! The crystal wouldn't have taken us to you if you weren't Snow Knight!"

"A-hyuk~ You see, our home is in a lot of danger and we need the Kingdom Knights' help to save it! There are these critters called Heartless that are-" Goofy was interrupted when there was a high pitched scream coming from the blitzball pitch. Tidus and Wakka were with the team practicing for today's game afterschool! "A-hyuk~! Heartless!"

"Huh?" Sora yelped, looking at Goofy in shock.

"Goofy might be a toy right now but his sense of smell is never wrong!" Donald quacked. "He can smell a Heartless a mile away!" Sora didn't even think as he grabbed his bag, stuffed the toys inside and ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the pitch, praying that Tidus and Wakka were alright.

_This is ridiculous! Two talking toys are spouting out something silly like a world in danger from some dangerous animal and you're running right towards one? What kind of idiot are you? _

* * *

><p>His feet skidded along the grass when he saw it.<p>

It clearly took its form from one of the school blitzballs because it was round and white, with glowing round yellow eyes and a strange heart symbol with a thorny cross emblazoned upon it and shadowy arms, legs and antennae. Stranger still was that from the thirteen blitzballers on the field and from every student and teacher in the immediate vicinity, a dark shining aura was sparkling around their weakened and unenthusiastic forms. Everyone except for Sora. "Wh-What's going on?"

"Oh no! The Heartless is sucking out their Imagination!" Donald quacked, having managed to get out of Sora's bag and perched himself on his shoulder. Goofy took the other.

"A-hyuk~! We have to do something before they're all completely drained!"

Sora wasn't paying attention to what they were saying; he was looking at the small figure that the Heartless was standing over. It was Tidus! "Tidus!" Sora didn't know what it was the sprung him into action but he ran straight for the fallen boy. He ignored Donald and Goofy yelling at Sora to stop. He had to save Tidus!

As he got closer, he could hear something strange. It sounded like Tidus' voice but it echoed and shook in a weird manner, repeating itself over and over. "_Stop __**comparing**__ me _to_ my __old__ man! Stop _**feeling**_ sorry _for_ me that _I _haven't got a mom__! Stop __**pretending**__ to be __nice to__ me! __**Sora **__hasn't got a _mom_ either __but you__ don't _**compare **_him to his _parents_! _**I'M SO FRUSTRATED**_!_"

"A-hyuk~! That boy's frustrations are feeding the Heartless!"

"What?" Sora asked loudly, yelping as he was swatted back by a shadowy limb, crying out in agony as he landed on his back. He winced, looking at the Heartless, shaking in fear. It was still crying out its tantrum.

"Heartless have to have something powering it," Donald grimaced, pulling himself back up onto Sora's shoulder. "The more negative the Imagination, the better."

"So Tidus is…" Sora started.

"All frustrations in some way are powered up by Imagination. It exaggerates what the real story is and blows it all out of proportion if its kept locked up in a heart! It's unhealthy!"

"Then I've got to reach out to Tidus and tell him he hasn't got anything to be frustrated about!"

"You're just gonna get swatted back again!" Donald snapped angrily. "You're not feeding it so it sees you as a nuisance!"

"Then what the hell am I supposed to do "

"A-hyuk~ Only a Kingdom Knight can get rid of a Heartless. They're the only people in the world that has that kind of power," Goofy answered.

"But Tidus…"

"You're going to help him more if you change into Snow Knight! If you just keep fruitlessly throwing yourself at it that Heartless is going to drain him and everyone else dry!" Donald yelled at him.

"But… but…"

"A-hyuk~ There really isn't any other way! You have to transform into Snow Knight right now!"

"But… but I'm scared and I don't know what to do!" At that moment, the red jewel burst into light just as the Heartless was about lash out at Sora for being noisy; a cocoon of red light protected the boy and the two toys, the glowing jewel in front of them. Donald and Goofy were over the moon with relief and joy!

"Aha so Honesty is your virtue!"

"A-hyuk~ I knew I was right about you!"

"Wh-What's going on?" Sora asked.

"The jewel activated when you were honest about being scared and not knowing what to do!" Donald replied.

"A-hyuk~ And that takes a special kind of bravery to be honest about that kind of thing!"

"So the jewel is now going to help you out by showing what you can do and helping you face that fear!"

"All you gotta say is 'Gate to my Heart, open!'" Goofy instructed, without a hint of irony in his voice.

"You're kidding…"

"JUST SAY IT!" the two toys yelled at Sora.

"Alright! Alright!" Sora took a deep breath and just did what he thought was right; his hands closed around the sparkling red jewel. "Gate to my Heart, open?"

"Say it with a little more conviction!" Donald quacked irritably. "This barrier isn't going to hold up enough forever!"

"A-hyuk~! It only has time to protect you during transformation!"

"Do you wanna save your friend or not "

_I do… but I don't…_ He felt his body shake a little. Of course he didn't understand. Of course he was scared. But losing a friend was much scarier than this! _Don't get embarrassed by this; no one is even watching!_ "Gate to my Heart, _open_!"

The light inside his hand burst at that moment, and it felt like everything about him was wiped clean, from the clothes he was wearing to the doubts in his heart. It felt warm in the cocoon; his eyes were closed but he could feel it all happen around.

It started off with his arms; he felt the warmth encasing his arms and then suddenly become rock-solid, hardening off into a ruby-red bracers. Next his legs and feet; yellow baggy pants and ruby-red greaves over yellow inch-high knee-length boots. Now his chest; a bodice-like top with gold and ruby-red pauldrons; the bodice was a dark blue with a red piping strip down the centre. A shining wave of light became a cape that was held in place by two shining matching rubies on his top. Accessories; he could feel the warm liquid light forge itself into a red belt with the crucified red heart crystal in the centre, attached to a string of diamonds, rubies and rounded up pearls of golden ore that went around his hips. A red ribbon around his neck. The light finally forced a tiara that went around his forehead, a red heart-shaped jewel twinkling in the centre.

He opened his eyes and, not even thinking about it, he put a hand over where the crucified jewel was a called forth a strange light that shaped itself into a large key in his hand. Golden mirror frame for its guard, a shining apple that was one half ruby and the other half emerald at the hilt, a bronze shaft and handle and the teeth of the key was comprised of the teeth of a golden comb. A long keychain with the crystal at the end was made from crystal apples, each one a colour of the rainbow. He took a firm grip of it and swung it about around him, getting a good feel of the new weapon. A Keyblade, something in his mind told him it was called. The cocoon broke in that very instance, the shattered pieces of it disappearing into the air, leaving him and the two toys there. He still had very little control over his body and voice. Hand on his heart. "Shining like earthen jewels, an Honest Heart. Snow Knight!" Hand in the air in a victorious pose even though he hadn't even laid a finger of harm on the Heartless.

…_okay…what…the…hell…Sora…_

Now he was finally given control of his emotions and body. He yelped and looked at his new outfit and felt his face. "What the hell? What is this?"

"This is not the time to panic!" Donald yelled at him. "That Heartless is gonna come after you now!"

"You could have told me that was going to happen!" Sora yelled back.

"LOOK OUT!" Goofy screamed. Sora looked up and jumped backwards just in time; though it felt more like he just flew into the air before the shadowy arm connected to where he had been, causing him to panic.

"I-I'm flying?"

"Don't be silly, it's magic!" Donald snorted. "And too much used at that!"

"Well excuse me for not knowing what the hell I'm supposed to do!"

"A-hyuk~ Fellas, I don't think it can jump as high as Snow Knight can," Goofy informed, pointing at the Heartless that was glaring at them angrily now.

"It must not be strong enough to leave the host yet! Snow Knight, this is more than perfect for you!" Donald yelled over the winds in their ears.

"Perfect for what?"

"An attack of course!" Donald and Goofy in that moment grabbed his shoulder tightly. "Take a deep breath and calm down! Snow White will tell you what to do if you give her chance!"

_How the hell can I…! Huh… wait… _Sora's eyes went down to his greaves. _So the bracers and greaves actually made from rubies? So these things do pack a punch… they'd have a problem against something made out of diamond… then…_ Letting himself just do what felt right to him, he tilted his body weight so that he would be free falling, willing the Keyblade to disappear for a moment while he concentrated on fighting the Heartless. Donald and Goofy were yelping in shock of the bold move. "_Kingdom Ruby-Red_ _**SLAM**_!" He threw his leg out as soon as he was at eyelevel with the deeply surprised Heartless. It caused the blitzball-like creature to go flying into a goal post when a greave connected with its face at full force, releasing Tidus. Sora landed just in front of him; in that moment, he felt a surge of fearlessness and innate knowledge that he knew wasn't his own but he trusted in it completely. He knew what he was doing.

_Summon the Sweet Apple and free the Imagination! _

Without even processing the command in his head, he mentally recalled the Keyblade to his hand, twirling it in his hand and pointing it straight at the floored Heartless. "_Snow Knight_…" He started twirling around, getting faster and faster until he was causing a small tornado to enwrap and hold his form aloft, leaves getting caught up in it and all of his dangling accessories glittering in the golden and red winds he had created with his Keyblade. "_Sweet….__**MEMORY**_!" He flicked his Keyblade to the Heartless, urging the winds to go hurtling to the possessed-blitzball. He watched as the gold and red winds impacted, the Heartless going up in an explosion of red and gold glitter with an agonised cry. Sora nearly fell to his knees, in shock that he did that.

"A-hyuk~ You did it Snow Knight!" Goofy trilled happily.

"Not bad for a beginner," Donald conceded, then turning his attention to the still moping Tidus. "Now you've gotta sort him out."

"How do I do that?" Sora asked, guessing that since he was Snow Knight it would do his school reputation no good to try and comfort Tidus as familiarly as he would have done.

"Just use the Sweet Apple, a-hyuk~" Goofy replied. "Keyblades can be used to heal people's hearts."

"All ya gotta do is point it at him and let the Sweet Apple do the rest," Donald guided him.

"Well… here goes nothing," Sora murmured, pointing the teeth of the Keyblade at Tidus and focusing all his thoughts on healing him. In that moment he saw all the images of Tidus being compared to his father, his lingering longing gazes at Sora when he was with his septuplet siblings, how he was usually alone at home.

"These are his memories that got darkened off," Donald explained. "It's not healthy to get rid of them, but we should make them smaller compared to the best memories." Donald reached for Sora's arm and started to manipulate what he was doing. "Like so. Just put more Imagination that's been retrieved in this memory-" It was one of Tidus, him and Wakka just hanging out together without a care in the world. "-and let it do the rest." Surprisingly enough, Donald had been correct. By putting more of the Imagination that was currently flowing back into Tidus and everyone else into more positive memories, the dense foreboding aura around the pitch was disappearing. He pulled his Keyblade away when he noticed it had stopped its work.

"What now?" Sora asked.

"A-hyuk~ We make a dash for it!" Goofy replied good naturedly.

"Ah! I can agree to that!" Sora suddenly turned on his heel, grabbed his bag and dashed off the pitch, praying to get out of this embarrassing outfit and just get back into his eyesore uniform! Donald and Goofy retreated into the bag while this was going on.

"A-hyuk~ I think the Fantasy Realm is going to be alright if the other Kingdom Knights are like him."

"…we're going to have to educate him," Donald grumbled; he had wanted to avoid that as much as possible. He hated teaching. "He got lucky this time that the Heartless was a baby. If he panics every time he transforms, we might as well kiss the Fantasy Realm goodbye."

"So what are you gonna do Donald?"

"Tomorrow morning, we're going to have to convince him that he hadn't dreamt the whole of today."

Donald, Goofy and Sora had no clue that three other Kingdom Knights were also in the vicinity that day; none of them had seen Sora or what had happened in the pitch, but they had heard of something weird happening.

And that was just the start of the on-going battle to save the Fantasy Realm.


	3. Episode 3: Dream Knight's First Step

**A/N:** Got the reference? Heartless here feed on Imagination (obvious), which comes from human hearts (erroneous since it comes from the mind on a scientific scale but magical girl animes seldom use science) and the Heartless manifests itself as the frustrations of the human heart incarnate (direct reference to how the Heartcatch PreCure "monster of the week" manifested itself).

You also may or may not have caught onto the tertiary theme of this "series of episodes". That third theme is of virtues (or something related to the seven virtues that counteract the seven cardinal sins (which in of themselves are related to the four cardinal virtues)). I've tried my hardest to match Virtues with the Princesses and then also onto character matched with them, but some probably match their virtues more than others (I'm dubious about some of them…)

I don't think there's ever been an anime series in the magical girl genre that has ever had three themes in the naming/power process. Correct me if I'm wrong here. (Elements and Nature are quite popular I noticed; even our lovely Organization XIII seem to have gone through a similar process with their character design).

I'm not sure if my costume design for these magi-boys is really doing them much justice. I might try to get some references up on my dA account sometime. Depends how big my workload gets in the next four weeks. Maybe someone will take up the mantle with how they envisioned the Snow Knight costume; might be better than what I've got XD *ahem* Anyways, thanks again for reading and reviewing. The same again please :D

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><p><strong>~~<em>Dream Knight's First Step<em>****~~  
><strong>

When he had heard of the strange going on that had happened at Destiny High, Roxas had actually been out of grounds sneaking a lunch to his step-sister Larxene, with the rendezvous being at the newly established Uncle Genie's Falafel Bar that was on the street between Larxene's high school (Tremaine's Academy for Young Ladies) and Destiny High. This was normal; Larxene always 'forgot' her lunch and made Roxas either buy her something on the way to meet her or on occasion snatch his lunch, meaning he would go hungry that day at school. That was at least the theory, but Roxas always made sure to have enough for two people. His friend Hayner always asked him why the hell he allowed Larxene to walk all over him. The truth was never really that simple to explain. While it was only his step-sister that was especially cruel to him, his step-mother had a real talent of guilt tripping him.

"So you gonna come watch me do Struggle practice?" Hayner asked him, bringing Roxas out of his thoughts. "Or are the Wicked Witches of the East and West got you doing chores until late again?"

"Wicked Witches," Roxas replied with a weak smile, putting his hands in his pockets. "It's in my best interest to do the chores before they have a go at me for being 'lazy'."

"Sheesh, and the Wicked Witch of the West isn't?" Hayner was referring to Larxene in this case.

"Larxene can do no wrong in her eyes." He then checked the time on his watch; it was almost 4:30. "I better get going! I've got to go to the supermarket first!"

"Alright," Hayner replied. "I'll talk to you online tonight when I get back from practice."

"Sounds great," Roxas beamed, taking his hands out of his pockets and putting them on his backpack's straps. "See you tomorrow Hayner!" He broke into a run, past the Enchanted Gifts Floristry shop and past The Winhill Windmill pub, leaving Hayner to turn towards a public area that was known as the Sandlot that actually wasn't that far away from the old "Usual Place". They used to hang out there as kids with another boy called Pence and a girl called Olette. Since his dad's death and starting high school, they had drifted apart and barely saw each other, so now the Usual Place was falling apart.

His shopping trip was the normal dreary thing; shopping list in one hand, secreted money left for it in his father's old wallet that he managed to keep safe from Larxene. The wallet was kept in a secret compartment that he had crafted himself on the inside of his bag, meaning that was kept out of sight to unwanted purveyors. He'd take it out before entering the supermarket so that the secrecy of it was not endangered. This time though was a little different from his normal shops…

* * *

><p>Earlier that morning, Roxas woke up before Larxene had a chance to retrieve the shopping budget that his step-mother would hurriedly leave on the kitchen counter with the list while rushing for work. All nice and normal for Roxas. However, lately there had been a problem with mice in the house so as part of his morning ritual, he'd go check the mouse cage they had gotten (Roxas, lover of animals, had made his case about buying a humane trap to catch the mice rather than the traps that would kill them) to see if any mice had been caught overnight. He was met with a shock that morning.<p>

What nearly caused him to yelp is surprise was that these mice he had found were wearing clothes! The next thing was that the fat one was wailing piteously at being found while the thin one was yipping at Roxas to back off. However, Roxas' shock was quickly subdued when he noticed that the fat one in the green hat and yellow shirt was bleeding. Roxas immediately knew it was Larxene's damn cat that had been at them. He bet his bottom dollar it had terrified them into the cage.

If it had been a normal mouse, Roxas was fairly sure that he'd probably release the uninjured one and then either call up the local wild animal rescue to see if the injured one could be saved. Roxas already got the distinct feeling that that option was out of the question. That and he had an unexplainable urge to take them to his room and nurse the injured clothes-wearing, talking mouse back to health. Like… he knew these two particular mice.

Fortunately for Roxas, neither of his step-relations came up to his bedroom so it was easy to hide the two strange mice. Making sure that the injured one would be able to rest and breathe easily, he placed the fat little thing in a small drawer box that he cushioned with anything that was soft and he didn't mind getting a little mucky. He then took a good look at the injury; only a flesh wound. He wrapped that up with torn up linen from an old bed sheet in his attic bedroom. He was a little uncertain about using disinfectant on what could possibly be an alien.

He had to assure the two mice that they would be safe in his room, leave food and water for them and tell them to hide while he was gone. By this point the fact that he was talking to effectively two mice was no longer weird to his logical human mind. Nor was the fact that they could talk back deemed impossible. It didn't even seem weird to him that these mice had names. The thin mouse in a red shirt, jacket and hat was called Jacques ("JakJak", though he spelt it by pressing on the computer keys of Roxas' laptop as the "Jacques"), and the chubby mouse was called Gus, or "GusGus". They called him "RoxRox", and said he was just as nice as someone called "Cindarelly". He was just glad to help, even if he could only be with them for a couple of short hours before school.

That was why in the weekly shopping trip he had actually added a few items more to his own expense from his personal savings –the money that he had saved from previous shopping trips. Cheese, crackers, grapes, and bandages from the first aid aisle that he could cut up for Gus. He already knew that he could not let Larxene and his step-mother ever know that he was effectively sheltering a new species of mice. Larxene would be seeing dollar signs in her eyes.

When he got home, Roxas had carefully moved items from one bag to another, placing his extra goods in a tight wrapped plastic bag into his backpack so that it was hidden from view. Larxene had yet to arrive home from the looks of it, and he already knew his step-mother would be out until late. He was safe to just look after Gus for a while, make sure they were fed and then he could start with the evening chores; colour wash tonight. Dinner was whatever he could make for himself and theoretically Larxene. He already knew that she'd be with her friends at the local Mickey D's. He did the vacuum cleaning that morning. The place just needed dusting and polishing.

When he came into his room, he saw that Jacques was fascinated by his laptop, trying to get it to turn on again. Gus was watching with interest, leaning heavily on the box side to take the weight off his leg. Roxas smiled a little, putting his bag on the bed and reaching over Jacques head to press the laptop power button. The laptop flickered into life, causing Jacques to yip in surprise.

"RoxRox! How do dat?"

"I just pressed this button," Roxas replied, logging himself onto his username. Roxas changed his password daily. Currently it was something special about his mother. "Why did you want to turn it on?"

"Neva see it before!" Jacques replied. He then jumped and looked at Roxas. "Nevamin dat! Zyuk-Zyuk. JakJak an' GusGus on very important misshun. Verrrrrrrrry important. No human meanta see us."

"You sort of failed in that sense," Roxas commented, taking Gus out and redressing his flesh wound. Gus was silent throughout.

"Zyuk-Zyuk. JakJak an' GusGus lookin' for Kin'dom Knight. Dey human. Dey an' otha Kin'dom Knights allowed to see JakJak an' GusGus. Or else JakJak an' GusGus vaniz."

"You haven't disappeared though," Roxas observed, not entirely sure where this was going. Jacques carefully took his hat off, dipping his hand into it and bringing out a blue crystal shaped into a heart on top of a pointed cross out. There was a flickering light coming from it. Jacques was admiring it for a moment then turned his attention back on Roxas.

"Crysta glowin' 'round RoxRox. Dat means RoxRox is Kin'dom Knight."

"Excuse me?"

"RoxRox is Kin'dom Knight. RoxRox is Dream Knight."

If he had been faced with that information first thing that morning and if Gus wasn't injured, Roxas might have thrown the strange things out of the house in fright. But now that he had time to think on what he had seen that morning, this didn't seem odd and frightening. He was more curious than anything now.

"So what does that mean for me?" Roxas asked, resting his cheek against his hand. Jacques looked pleased at how well he was taking it.

"RoxRox become Dream Knight. Save Fantashie Realm. Fight Heartless."

"But why? Why should I become Dream Knight?" Roxas was growing more and more curious.

"JakJak an' GusGus' home gone," Jacques said sadly. Gus was now limping to stand beside his friend, patting his back comfortingly. "Cindarelly gone too. All gone. Wanna go home."

That had been enough for Roxas to feel empathy for these two little mice. A lost home. Feeling like everything was fading away and turning grey around him. He could understand. The exact thing was happening to him. People were leaving, but he was pretty much stuck in one place. "…I don't know…"

"If RoxRox helps, RoxRox can change," Gus finally said, looking up at him pleadingly. "RoxRox can become what he wants. 'Coz Dream Knight help make wishes come true. Like Cindarelly's wish."

"Wishes… huh…" Roxas felt a little sceptical about that. He picked up the blue crystal and looked at it, raising it up so that it glinted in the sunset light. It seemed to twinkle a little bit, like a star. "I don't know if I have wishes it can grant."

"Cindarelly thought dat too! But when she dream really really hard, Fairy Lady help!" Jacques enthuse. "So can RoxRox! RoxRox just gotta have Faith!"

"Hmm…" He put the crystal down; he was still unconvinced. "I don't know if I can help you two. This sounds so much bigger than I am."

"RoxRox…" Gus murmured sadly.

"I'm useless… all I'm good at is just keeping a clean house for my step-relatives…"

"But-" Jacques stopped all of a sudden, his ears twitching. "Heartless…"

"Huh?" Roxas questioned, surprised that Jacques had changed mid-sentence. "Heartless?" Didn't Jacques mention that briefly before.

"Crysta give JakJak supa-hearin'. Can hear Heartless. It eatin' Imaginashun!" Roxas didn't really know what that meant, but he couldn't… he wouldn't… "Dey hurtin' RoxRox! Dey really hurtin'!"

"Who is?" Roxas asked.

"Da humans!" Gus replied. "Imaginashun is powa fer Fantasy Realm! Comes from humans!"

"Imagin…ation?"

"Come from… Usual….Place?" Jacques struggled, straining his ears.

"What did you say?-!" Roxas suddenly leant forward, his eyes glimmering in shock and worry.

"Usual Place. Heartless say it." Jacques looked at Roxas curiously. "RoxRox? It speshul to you?"

"Very," Roxas replied, picking up Jacques carefully. Gus threw up the crystal to the skinny mouse. Roxas hadn't really noticed such was his concern. If anything was even causing a bit of damage to their Usual Place. "Gus, stay hidden just in case Larxene comes back and if she decides to come in here for any reason. We'll come back as soon as we can." He put Jacques into a pocket in his backpack after quickly tossing and hiding stuff around the room, zipped it with an air pocket getting through and then put the bag on his back. "Jacques, hold on! This could get bumpy for you!"

* * *

><p>To get there as quickly as he did, Roxas had grabbed his practically unused skateboard from when he was a pre-teen, hurtling himself towards the Sandlot where his precious Usual Place was. As then sun began to set further down the sky, he brought himself to a halt just as he neared the entrance to the Sandlot. His blue eyes widened. Jacques managed to pop his head out when he felt the journey come to a sudden stop. They both stared at the sight.<p>

To Roxas, he immediately recognised Hayner's Struggle Bat but it had bat wings attached to its side and two big evil looking yellow eyes coming from its blue body, a strange red crossed out heart marking just above them. There weren't many people around but a strange dark aura was being sucked out from them and in the centre of it all…

"Hayner!" Roxas felt his feet start to run.

"RoxRox! Danger! Danger!" Jacques screeched. "Look out!"

With the kind of movement that was almost like a prancing dancer, Roxas had managed to back step away from an energy ball that had been fired at him. It evaporated in front of him. Jacques breathed a sigh of relief.

"Too close! RoxRox Imaginashun coulda been sucked up!"

"It was aiming for me?"

"Frus-tray-shuns cause big bad Imaginashun! Heartless feed on it! RoxRox must have bad Imaginashun too!"

"Then I can't get close…" Roxas murmured, thinking how to get through to Hayner. He didn't need to hear what the Heartless was screaming. He already knew Hayner's frustrations; he was very vocal about them online after practise. _I hate him! I hate him! I'm probably ten times more talented than that bastard but he still beats me in every match I have with him! I hate Seifer!_

"_Why _does _he__ beat _**me **_at __**everything**__?-!_" the Heartless screeched.

"RoxRox change into Dream Knight!" Jacques squeaked. "It only way!" He yelled as Roxas once again dived away from danger, surprising the little mouse at how athletic his hoped-for Dream Knight was.

"I've got to reach Hayner first!"

"No way RoxRox can do it!"

"I believe in myself!" He dodged again; it was surprising that his carefully styled hair wasn't getting messed up. "If I have faith in myself, then there isn't a thing I can't do!" Roxas had no idea that the little blue crystal that was currently being clung to tightly by Jacques was sparkling and glowing violently in response to Roxas' words and unshakable faith in himself. He got closer to Hayner with every dodge he made, catapulting himself towards his friend and reaching out to the depressed figure that was the Heartless' wretched captive. "Hayner!" He didn't see the beam of dark energy heading straight for him.

Before it had a chance to collide, a blue flash of light suddenly cocooned both human and mouse, protecting it from the attack and sending the Heartless hurtling to a wall, temporarily severing contact from Hayner. Roxas inside freaked out as he and Jacques floated inside. "Wh-What the hell?-!"

"Zyuk-Zyuk! RoxRox is Dream Knight! RoxRox can transform!"

"Th-This can't be real!"

"RoxRox has Faith! Faith powerful! Can make dreams come true! RoxRox can do same thing! RoxRox gotta say "Gate to my Heart, open"!" Jacques eyes were sparkling as he held the crystal in front of Roxas. "RoxRox be quickquick!"

"I don't really understand what's going on…" he looked over to Hayner who was now lying unconscious. He felt the urge to protect his best friend of many years. "I'll try. I'll try this." He took a deep breath and cupped the crystal in his hands, seeing it sparkle brightly like the wishing star. "Gate to my Heart, _open_!"

In that moment, he felt a cool sensation run over his body like an icy wind, blowing away his clothes. His eyes closed; the coolness felt soothing.

The transformation began with his chest; a powder blue bodice that clung to his body comfortably, showing the dancer's body that he had inherited from his mother. This was followed by the dark blue leggings, powder blue chaps and boots that were white with a glass sole and heel. His arms were next; they were given handless sleeves that hugged his arms like evening gloves, going all the way up to his shoulder in its powdery blue silken texture. A glass pauldron materialised on his left shoulder, white gossamer fabric grew out from a materialised dark blue belt with the crystal in the centre, looking like a cage-less bustle. A glass brooch coloured dark blue and surrounded by diamonds appeared at the point of the v-neckline of his bodice, and growing from that as a single sparkling dark blue cape in a shimmer of stardust. This hung off his left shoulder. A dark blue ribbon was tied around his neck and a single black headband materialised in his hair, a bright blue heart crystal attached to the left side of his head.

He opened his eyes. Both of his hands went over his crucified heart crystal on his belt and from it he shaped a light by moving his hands apart from each other, his right hand gripping the weapon's golden handle. Crystal aqua wheels at the base of a white guard that created a beautiful white and blue castle structure, the tallest white tower stretching as the shaft of the weapon where an eight-pointed crystalline blue and violet star. In his mind, a voice told him that this weapon –this Keyblade– was called the Stroke of Midnight. As a swung his blade in a 360 degree turn around him, a crystalline light made form to three pure white links attached to a glass slipper charm and a clone of his blue crucified heart crystal. The cocoon broke, the blue glass-like pieces shattering into the air. Still holding the weapon, both hands where pressed over his heart while the Keyblade's teeth were pointing to the floor. "Shining like the night sky star, a Faithful Heart. Dream Knight!" Victory pose: one arm outstretched above him, palm skywards. Weapon hand lowered, the tip of the shaft barely touching the ground. Feet closed together in a ballet dancer's first position.

Roxas now actually took a good look at himself. "Whoa… this is…" He lifted his foot up to inspect his glass-heeled boots, giving them a tap with his finger. Yup. Real glass. What The-!

"Danger!" Jacques yelled.

"Huh?" Roxas started, looking up to see balls of dark aura being aimed at him. Without even thinking about it, he backflipped out of the way, watching as the balls gathered in the place he had only just been seconds ago.

"Close…" Jacques breathed. "Dream Knight, gotta get close! Bash Heartless away!" Roxas didn't even move a muscle, looking straight at the Heartless with a contemplative stare. "Dream Knight!"

"There it is…" He suddenly dashed off towards it, zigzagging past every attack the Heartless made, keeping his eye on where the next attack would be fired at. Jacques was clinging to his shoulder for dear life. In his mind, Roxas somehow knew that despite their fragile look, the glass soles and heels of his boots were just as hard as diamonds. With the exception to his Keyblade, they were probably the most dangerous weapon he had on his form. Not for sharpness, but for brute bashing power if he put enough power behind them. Before another aura ball had a chance to make any impact on the newly awakened Dream Knight, the blond launched himself into the air, not questioning for a second that he was making an insanely inhuman leap in the air. The Struggle bat-shaped Heartless looked in shock as it realised in instinctual horror that it had been outwitted, staring straight at Roxas. The blond had a serious look in his face.

"_Kingdom Enchanted STEP!_" Roxas' forced his foot to kick up high in between the Heartless' eyes, causing it to be lifted up into the air away from Hayner and everyone else it had been trying to feed off from. Roxas landed on his feet looking up.

"That it RoxRox! A chance! A chance!" Jacques yipped into his ear.

"Got it," Roxas nodded, lifting his Keyblade up into the air, taking a deep breath. He just trusted the voice in his head.

He felt some sort of magic from his Keyblade surge up to the tip, and rather than shoot up into the sky, it gathered up into a ball of light particles. He obeyed the advice to start spinning like a dance –that his boots would keep him from falling over in dizziness. The world began to spin and spin, and the ball of light split into twirling streams of light that sparkled around him. He gained speed, causing the light to look more like a spinning top from above. The Heartless went hurtling towards the pinnacle of his spinning sparkling spiral. "_Dream Knight Dream…__**SPARKLE**__!_" The light suddenly gathered up into a bowl shape and caught the Heartless, encasing it in a large ball and shrinking itself around it, causing the Heartless to contort with it until it exploded into a frenzy of glittering fireworks. Roxas felt his body skid to a halt mid-spin, his world spinning but he still looked in awe at the ethereal lights that were now sparkling around them. His body gave way and fell to his knees, attempting to ground itself. "Whoa…"

"You did it!" Jacques yipped happily. "Imaginashun go backback to people!"

Roxas' eyes fell on Hayner. "But what about…"

"Oh! Keyblade heal! All Keyblades heal! Just point!"

Roxas forced his dizzy legs to stand, picking up the Stroke of Midnight and pointing it at Hayner. That's when he saw the shards of memories, some darker ones larger than others. He could see Hayner's anger towards Seifer always beating him in some way or picking on others. He could see Hayner's despair at not being stronger in so many different situations that just wasn't his fault. "Hayner… why didn't you say something…"

"Put Imaginashun in good thoughts! Imaginashun in bad thoughts baaaaad!"

"Like this?" Roxas asked, hesitantly manipulating the Imagination around Hayner to go into lighter memories. Memories of the four of them as little kids playing together, of Hayner winning his first Struggle bout, of them just sitting in the Usual Place having sea salt ice cream. Good times that he missed but treasured intensely. Roxas smiled a bit nostalgically at seeing those memories. _You still remember those times, huh…_

"Zyuk-Zyuk! Dream Knight got it!"

"Will he be alright?"

"Won't remem'er! Migh' tink it a bad dream!"

"Let's hope so." Roxas finished up healing Hayner and moved away, hoping that he wouldn't remember. Roxas knew that it would be completely obvious to his best friend since kindergarten that he was just same old Roxas in a costume that was borderline frou frou! "We better get going for he comes around." He noticed that Hayner was beginning to stir.

"Zyuk-Zyuk! GusGus might be worried!"

Roxas quickly dashed away, deciding that travelling back home as quietly as possible would be a good way to test out these new powers he had acquired.

He was going to need them to get past Larxene completely unnoticed.


	4. Episode 4: Song of the Sea Knight

**A/N:** Hey all. Our third Kingdom Knight is about to be revealed! I'm glad everyone was laughing their heads off at Cinder-Rox; its just so paradoxical that its funny! I had a blast writing up his costume description.

Speaking of which, I have designed all seven Kingdom Knights now, and even had a play around the dolldivine sailor seishi doll maker to make their female counterparts (I liked Leon's so much I made her my laptop user account's profile picture!) It was honestly too much fun for my brain.

This episode has one major reference to Suite PreCure, and a subtle reference to a recent episode of Smile PreCure. You'll also see Leon a little bit in action as well since most of you were asking for him ;)

I'm not too sure if I paired this Kingdom Knight with the right virtue, but it was the only one that I could see emulated his particular Disney Princess very well. Oh well, paradoxes and what not. Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing~ Hope you enjoy this installment!

* * *

><p><em><strong>~~Song of the Sea Knight<strong>_

Just before dawn had broken that day, Demyx had gone down to the beach just a short walk away from his house to have an early morning swim. He had never really thought about the implications of his sneaking out to do his normal ritual of spending time in the sea, exploring the shallows and just gathering more for his collection of shells and other interesting things he'd find under the sea. Nor would he have ever seen what his ritual disobedience of his overprotective mother would lead to.

He swam about in the deepest part of the shallow water, trying to hold his breath for as long as he could in hope that he'd be able to reach the bottom. The fish hadn't come out yet to feed yet; it would be a while yet. Soon as he felt his lungs about to give way, he turned his body up to the surface and kicked strongly, taking in a big gasp of air as he surfaced. The morning sun had risen above the horizon, greeting Demyx warmly. The dirty blond grinned broadly; even if he couldn't reach the bottom of the sea, this view every morning was worth waking up for. He sighed, guessing that it was time to go back now; his mother would probably be sitting on the steps waiting for him if she noticed her only child had gone missing again. He swam like a dolphin back to shore, coming up for air as he did the butterfly stroke.

High above, a lone seagull watched his progress. It was too far up in the sky for Demyx to notice that there was a strange looking crab clinging to its neck.

* * *

><p>For Demyx, school was just something that he felt like he had to go through. He was pretty bad at academics, was only decent at marathon running, excelled at swimming and at music, but his report cards had a common theme. He was smart, but it was ridiculous just how much Demyx would goof off or daydream at school. He would also say that although he had friends, he probably wasn't very close to them at all. It was like they were all just passing through in each other's lives. Of course, he was curious when everyone after lunch break that day started talking about the strange feather light feeling they had after a strong bout of feeling weighed down by depression. Demyx had been in the music rooms, practising on his sitar that day. Leon, the class president (via sheer pressure from the class and from their form teacher) had pretty much killed the conversation with a sharp slap of his book on the desk and stating that they had more important things to worry about. No one ever doubted Leon on that, especially not today when he was in a particularly foul mood. Everyone wondered if the explosion that was heard through town yesterday had come from Crazy Loire's house; judging by Leon's mood, everyone could only smile sympathetically at Leon.<p>

Demyx knew that the sympathy just drove Leon up the wall with anger, even if the brunet never showed. Maybe it was just empathy, but he could understand that if anyone talked about his mom as if she were crazy or started being sympathetic over the fact he was her son, he'd flip. Leon though had never once lost his temper with his classmates over his father, which Demyx thought was kind of sad but he wouldn't say that out loud. He'd rather live to old age rather than risk getting killed by the school 'prince' as it were.

That, and the class clown like him had very little chance at even speaking to Leon. The hierarchy dictated that unobtainable people like Leon, who was good at sports, good at academics, had a ridiculous amount of fangirls trying to get close to him and had that incredibly cold and aloof demeanour about him, people like him were left on their pedestal and worshipped like some kind of god. Demyx knew as a fact that many of the girls had hoped that maybe they could get close to him. Bets were currently on the class 'princess' Rinoa. Demyx thought that some of the girls at St. Tremaine's had more luck than she did. And him? Well, he was the class joker. He gave people a good laugh but he wasn't going to be in the same social circle as Leon. To be honest, no one was ever quite in the same social circle as Leon.

* * *

><p>Or at least, that's what Demyx had thought that day, until afterschool on his way home. As he turned the corner towards Station Heights, where he would get a train to the beach and then walk the way home from there, he noticed Leon was leaning against the wall out of the way of everyone else. He was staring straight at Demyx.<p>

"Um… can I help?" Demyx asked.

"You're the only one who said that he didn't feel anything strange at the lunch break," Leon stated calmly, pushing himself off the wall he was leaning against. "Did you notice anything odd today? Like something that wasn't meant to be at the school?"

Demyx thought about it; no. Nothing weird. He hadn't seen anything odd about today. He shook his head. "You know, I bet it was some idiot that just went about hypnotizing people or something and everyone just can't remember it happening. Or something like that…"

"But you didn't see anything."

Demyx shook his head. "Was I supposed to?"

Leon frowned a little bit, then shook his head, pushing the hair away from his eyes and that mysterious scar that split diagonally across the bridge of his nose. "No. Forget it. It's probably nothing." He walked straight past Demyx but stopped just a bit behind him. "You should be careful Demyx. There's something about this I don't like, and I'm going to find out what it is." He started walking again; Demyx had turned to watch Leon's back moving away from him.

"What was all that about…?"

High above the seagull and crab combo had been watching over him. If he had looked up at this point, he might have caught a glimpse of green light in the sunlight.

* * *

><p>Demyx honestly had every intention of going back home. Honestly. He really did. But once again that call to the sea had beckoned to him as he walked along the boardwalk, and he felt that longing to return to it. If there was one thing that never really changed, it was the sea that he loved so much. Just like all the other times he promised to be home by a certain time, his urge to go to the sea had won out; he threw his weight over the railing and landed on the soft sand. He took his shoes and socks off, rolled up his trouser legs and walked along the sand where land met water, feeling the water and sand wash between his toes. He'd walk along the beach to where his home was, and then he'd go a little further out to his usual diving spot was. Maybe if there was another light left in the day he'd go visit his hideout. He then noticed something just a little off in the distance.<p>

A seagull was flying around and bobbing about in the same place, something that one would never really think would be normal behaviour since Demyx knew fish would swarm as close to the shallows the seagull was moving around. Stranger still there appeared to be something clinging to it. Demyx risked getting closer, frowning a bit as the seagull took to the air; the thing that was clinging to its feathers fell and Demyx could definitely hear a scream. Something plunged into the shallows; Demyx ran over to check what it was. Maybe it was some sort of mussel or clam.

What he found was a crab waving its legs uselessly in the air as it tried to rock itself off its back. A crab clinging to a seagull? How strange. Seagulls usually ate crabs when they could. He reached into the waters, his hands cupping the bright red crab and slowly turning him over. He almost jumped at the strange face that was attached to the crab but quickly caught it again before it could land on the water. "Okay… that was a shock…" He looked at the crab close. It had a mouth like a human's, and two eyes that were clearly disproportionate to the rest of the body. In fact, Demyx could safely claim that this would be an entirely new species of crab altogether. The crab looked about ready to jump back into the sea if it got the chance, if crabs could show emotion. Which this one certainly could. "I suppose I have to go inform the proper authorities about a new species of crab… though who knows what they would do to a little guy like you. Especially for the sake of science… ah!" He felt the back of his head get slapped by a heavy wing, almost causing Demyx to drop the crab. It was that seagull, but now that he looked at it that was a very large seagull indeed!

"SCUTTLE MON!" the crab yelped in surprise, then suddenly clamped his claws around his mouth, looking at Demyx in horror. Demyx's eyes went wide with surprise.

"I… I'm not hearing things… you just talked?" He watched as the crab checked himself for something, then release a heavy sigh of relief.

"That's good… it looks like that crystal wasn't lyin' when it was flickerin' near you."

"Crystal? Wait… hang on…" Demyx looked over his shoulder, seeing that no one was on the boardwalk at the moment or even along the beach. He sat down on the dry sand, next to the shoes and socks he had flung aside when he went to go save the poor crab. "So I'm not hallucinating or dreaming? You're actually a talking crab?"

"Boi, I t'ink we got that covered when that feather-bag up there dropped me!" the crab exclaimed. "And I'm surprised you're taking this so well." Demyx realised now that the accent of the crab was Jamaican. He then looked up at the seagull.

"He talks too?"

"Yus, he does. But that's beside the point!" The crab started to flail his claws about. "The crystal! I dropped the crystal!"

"Crystal?" Demyx looked up to the sea. "You dropped it here?"

"Yes! It's incredibly important! If we lose it-!"

"Then I'll help." The crab nearly fell out of Demyx's hands, looking at the boy in shock.

"You'll help?"

"I'll help," Demyx reaffirmed. "You'll be able to find it faster with another pair of eyes under the sea, right?"

"That is true but…" Demyx placed the crab down, taking off his school shirt and tie off and putting them in his bag along with his shoes and socks. Then he slid his school trousers off, effectively leaving him in the boxers he was wearing that day.

"How about you call your friend down? I need someone to look after my bag," Demyx grinned, ruffling through his school bag to bring out his diver's goggles and snorkel out. The crab looked incredibly surprised at how accepting the boy was of this strange happening.

"Aren't you the least bit worried, boi?"

"I'm Demyx, not 'boi'," came the reply, putting the goggles on his face. "And I wish I had flippers right about now but I'll have to make do without them."

"…Alright Demyx." The crab then looked up to the sky and signalled to the seagull flying above. "Scuttle! Come down here!" The seagull dived towards them, flapping his wings rapidly as he came to land.

"So we aren't disappearing huh?" the seagull said; Demyx barely batted an eyelid at the prospect of a talking seagull.

"Just keep an eye out for my bag Scuttle," Demyx beamed. "I'll go help… ah, do you have a name Mr. Crab?"

"Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian," the crab introduced himself.

"Sebastian then," Demyx laughed, picking up the crab and wading into the waters. "Let's go find that crystal then."

"But how do you propose to help me underwater? You're a human! Humans can't breathe underwater!"

"True, but I can swim pretty well and hold my breath for a long time. That's gotta count for something, right?" He waded in a little more and allowed Sebastian to swim out of his hands. "Okay, let's do this!" Demyx put the snorkel mouthpiece in, took a deep breath and dived under the water, looking out for something sparkling in the water. Sebastian managed to keep up.

"Now what you're lookin' for," Sebastian's blurred voice managed to get through to Demyx's ears, "is a green crystal. It's shaped like a heart on top of a cross."

_Green crystal. Heart-shaped on top of a cross. Got it._ He gave Sebastian the okay signal and kicked powerfully as close to the bottom as he could; this part of the shore had an old fishing boat wreck and anchor from decades ago, long before Demyx was even born. It was too deep for Demyx to ever get really close enough to so his urge to explore the wreck had never been satisfied. It was too expensive for him to rent diving equipment and his mother would never let him do it; she was way too overprotective like that. It was a wonder that she ever let him do the amount of free-diving and snorkelling that he did. Eventually he had to swim back to the surface before his lungs gave way, breaking the surface with a gasp. Sebastian's red head came up with him.

"It's no use," he said mournfully. "You can't look for the crystal like this."

"Watch me," Demyx said with determination, putting his snorkel back into place and returning to searching, ready to take as long as it took to find Sebastian's crystal.

It must have been the twentieth time he dived under the water when he finally saw a sparkle in the sunlight. As he kicked strongly towards the sparkle near where the anchor was lodged in the sand, he could just about see the sea-green colour of the crystal and the shape of it. He could already feel his lungs starting to painfully contort in his chest, almost as if they were ready to explode, but Demyx was not going to surface just yet. _Just a little longer… it's just there!_ He forced himself to go forward, unable to hear Sebastian yelping at Demyx to stop. He could just about make out the words "face", "blue", "up" and "air". His hand reached out just as his mouth was about to let go of the air bubble he had held for so long, his fingertips touching the crystal. He was blinded by a flash of green light, and suddenly he found himself cocooned in liquid warmth, the saltiness of the sea filling his lungs and mouth. Sebastian had been pulled into it, looking panicked.

"Demyx my boi! I know you can't speak underwater but you need to t'ink as loud as possible 'Gate to my Heart, open' right now! It'll save your life!"

_Why would I think of something like that…_

"Demyx! Now! Otherwise you're going to be shark bait!"

Demyx felt his world starting to blur even more… well… what else could he do? He trusted Sebastian so far. He reached out for the crystal that was shining down on him, his fingertips just touching it again. _Gate to my Heart… __**open**__!_

He felt water gush around his body, washing away his snorkel, diver's goggles, boxers, everything. He felt a strong sense of being cleansed somehow.

The water began with his legs first; they wrapped around them and form jade green leggings followed by a lighter green pair of boots with iridescent purple fins attached to the back of them and purple rims with lilac coloured clamshells at the front. Now his chest; that was covered with a purple clamshell-shaped top, a green collar that could only be described as coming out of the 80s helping to keep the top secure by hanging around his neck like a halter top. Arms: these were covered with green fabric from shoulder to wrist, secured by purple ribbons and the top of these sleeve-like covers was a green translucent "dorsal fin" that wrapped itself around his arm. A belt of purple scales appeared around his waist, the green crystal in its centre and a green gossamer "tail fin" sprouting from the back. A neck ribbon of green wrapped itself around his neck, the water forged a headband of gold with a green heart-shaped crystal in its centre that rested across his forehead, two clam shells as earrings. Finally, he felt his mullet-hawk (as some people called it) suddenly grow longer, the tips resting happily to the small of his back. He opened his eyes and grinned widely, doing a backwards somersault in the watery cocoon just before it broke. The green crystal stopped glowing at this point; in his mind he figured for some strange reason that he didn't need his Keyblade. Whatever a Keyblade was. Even so, his hands acted like they were strumming some musical instrument. "Shining like the calm sea, a Diligent Heart. Sea Knight!" He'd probably jump if he wasn't in the water, but he winked just as he said that.

Sebastian swam up to Demyx; and this time Demyx could hear him much more clearly. "Thank goodness I was right about you. Otherwise we'd have a problem with a dead human."

"I knew what I was doing," Demyx frowned, then yelped as he realised now he was talking underwater. Breathing too! "Wooooooooooooooooooow~!"

"This is probably all a little disconcertin' for you Demyx," Sebastian started, "but if you allow me an' Scuttle to explain what's goin' on-"

"This is too cool!" Demyx exclaimed happily, suddenly propelling himself forward towards the wreck and swimming through an open door, not hearing Sebastian yelling for him to come back. The ability to breathe underwater was just way too useful for a water baby like Demyx.

"Demyx! Boi! Will you just wait a minute!"

Demyx's attention was too taken by all the life that had clung to the wrecked fishing boat, looking around the unexplored place with absolute wonder. Even glistening fish that rarely came close to the shore peeked their heads from their hiding places to watch the strange boy that was swimming around their sunken home.

"Demyx!" Sebastian yelled, just as the newly made Sea Knight forced open an old sea-rusted door. The boy yelped in surprise as a large octopus suddenly sprayed ink in his face and swam as fast as its eight limbs could carry it away from its supposed antagonise. Demyx wildly waved the inky cloud from his face, spluttering a bit. He saw Sebastian floating in front of him, the very look of irritation on his crustaceous-human face. Demyx grinned in uneasy appeasement. "Listen boi, you can't start swimmin' before you can paddle. Don't you even understand why you have these powers now?"

Demyx thought about it, then grinned and said, "Because I'm such a good Samaritan that the crystal rewarded me with the power to breathe underwater so long as I'm in this kooky getup?"

"Ack! No! That isn't it at all!" Sebastian settled himself at the ship's wheel, his large eyes daring Demyx to even think of going off again. "Demyx, Scuttle and I are from a world called the Fantasy Realm. It's fadin' away as we speak. Our home, the kingdom of Atlantica, is completely gone. We're just two of only a handful that managed to escape."

"Escape from what?"

"Heartless. Or I should say, the actions that caused them to feed off the Imagination needed to keep the Fantasy Realm powered." Sebastian's face sunk a little into sadness. "Something happened that caused the Heartless to appear in this world, and because of them the Imagination is being cut off. You are one of seven chosen to help us."

"One of… seven? Help you how?"

"Help us by becoming the Kingdom Knights. Seven hearts made from the purest light that can fight back the blackest of shadows. That's what the legends say. If they can't help… then no one can."

"Then I guess-" Demyx stopped mid-sentence when he heard something dart behind him. He turned around and picked up Sebastian. "Seb, I think we might have outstayed our welcome here."

"We should probably head for the-" The sound had returned, and it was closer than ever. Demyx held onto Sebastian a little tighter.

"Kingdom Knights are warriors, right?"

"Yes."

"And that means I've got at least some way of fighting, right?"

"A Keyblade. The Mysterious Abyss Keyblade to be precise."

"But say I'm a total coward and no that there's no way I could fight for any reason… I have a means of getting out of a sticky situation, right?"

"Well you probably would be able to outswim anything for a while underwater but-"

"That's all I need to know!" Demyx was quick to swim through a broken window in the flying bridge they were in. "Swim! Swim away!"

"Demyx! Y-You should be facin' the enemy!"

"No point in fighting if I don't understand it, right? Paddle before you swim, wasn't that the phrase?" Demyx tried to explain, hearing something behind them starting to rush towards them. _Don't look back. Don't look back. Looking back is a sign of weakness._

"That's not the-" Sebastian yelped as Demyx put on an extra burst of speed, surprised by how quickly someone with two legs was swimming. They were getting closer to the surface at an alarming rate. "Demyx! Kingdom Knights have to fight!"

"Who said anything about picking fights when you don't know anything?-!" They suddenly broke the surface, but Demyx suddenly found them halfway up in the air as if he had just done a dolphin jump. Well, maybe he had. It was then he took a look down.

Having rushed up to the surface as well, whatever the thing was had taken the form of an octopus, long dark tentacles reaching out for Demyx to grasp hold of and strangle. Its eyes were slit-shaped and blood red, a thorny crossed out heart sitting on its bulbous dark blue head, a sucking mouth of green blowing giant bubbles as it went. "The hell?-!" Demyx squeaked, yelping as a tentacle reached out at that point and slapped him to the side. The poor newly made Kingdom Knight hit the water with a stinging splash. Sebastian barely managed to hang on.

"Get the Keyblade out! Quick! Before it does some real damage!"

Demyx would have listened but he saw another tentacle coming; he dived out of the way, swimming deeper into the water. Even he could tell that he couldn't let this thing, this Heartless, get anywhere close to the shore. But what the hell was he supposed to do? _Think Demyx! Think for once in your life!_ He then saw the anchor in the corner of his eye… well… that was a large eye… large enough for him to squeeze through… and it did look stupid enough… "Sebastian, you better hold on tight."

"Hold tight for what?-!" Demyx did not respond to the crab's question, darting deeper into the water and towards the anchor.

"Ya! Boo! Can't catch me!" Demyx taunted, not daring to look back; he could hear that Heartless chasing after him. The eye of the anchor was within sight. "Alright Sebastian! We're almost there!" He put on an extra burst of speed, seeing the eye and swimming straight for it. _Think thin! Think thin! You're a thread going into the eye of the needle! Think thin!_ His arms, automatically, came together to form a point as he shot himself like an arrow through the eye, slipping through the large eye with ease. The Heartless' tentacle that had been following after him went through and it got stuck. Demyx let his body swim upwards, putting enough distance between him and it. Sebastian was clinging to his tail fin. "Got it!"

"Not yet boi! You've got to cleanse the t'ing!"

"Cleanse it?" Demyx frowned at that. "How do I go about that?"

"Summon your Keyblade! If you can cleanse it, you'll free whatever the source of the bad Imagination is!"

"Summon my…" _Ah! What if I…?_ He put a hand over where the green crystal was inlaid to his belt, feeling a swirling ball of energy appear there. Without thinking, he lifted his hand up quickly above himself, watching as that ball gathered water around itself and took shape. Demyx could see where the weapon got its name from. The teeth and shaft of blade was made to look like a waterspout, attached to a handle and guard made out of brightly coloured seashells, a blue pearl glistening in the centre of the guard. A golden chain with seashells attached hung from it, the same crucified heart crystal on his belt swinging from it. But he noticed there was something quite odd about his Keyblade. Something that he couldn't quite see. _Hang on… it almost feels blunted… _His eyes widened, a spark of knowledge crossing his eyes, like someone had told him that this Keyblade was unusual for one critical reason. He swung it a bit in his hands, then held like he would a guitar.

"My! You caught on that it isn't supposed to be used like a sword quickly!" Sebastian commented.

"Uh… intuition?" Demyx suggested, yelping as a stray tentacle swiped for them. "Any idea on what I should do now Seb?-!"

"Cleanse it! Cleanse it!"

"Yeah but _how_?-!" He felt something strange against his fingers… strings? He looked down at the Keyblade; strings of light had appeared from the tip of the blade to the base of the guard, and Demyx noticed that it was the exact number of strings on a sitar. _Ohhhhh… now I get it_.

He swam away from another swipe just in time, now right above the octo-Heartless, ready to strum. He took a deep breath and gave the strings a hard chord that pierced the otherwise soundless sea. The sound echoed across the expanse of water. "_Sea Knight…_" All around him, the water divided and formed an air bubble around him, the membrane absorbing vast amounts of water and closing around him. His Sitar-Blade (as he was from now on dubbing it) strings were glowing an even brighter green as they stored up energy. "_Wave __**GIGS**__!" _With a force that even caused Demyx to yelp in exclamation, the airbubble burst as soon as he struck a chord with even greater force, the sound waves having caused it. Thus, releasing all the pent up water and energy into a controlled vortex that struck the Heartless hard, causing it to explode upon contact. Even Sebastian had been sent off spinning in the water. "Now… that's what I call overdoing it…" Demyx commented. The sea was starting to glitter all around him. Sebastian, finally having recovered, swam over to him.

"Down there. It seems to be the octopus you scared earlier," the crab commented, pointing a claw downwards. "You'll have to repair its heart."

Demyx just nodded his head, diving down. He witnessed memories of just living in that dark cool cupboard in peace, undisturbed by anyone, hunting fish when it was hungry and also being scared out of its wits when divers trespassed upon his hunting grounds. Simple memories that an octopus probably wouldn't remember in the long term, but clearly enough for a Heartless to take control of.

"It's odd though," Sebastian commented. "Imagination usually comes from humans. Heartless shouldn't really be able to form from an animal."

"Maybe it's not just Imagination Heartless feed off from. Maybe they just affect it." Demyx shrugged a little. "So how do I help it? It's looking a bit lifeless." He wasn't kidding; the octopus was lying limply in the eye of the anchor.

"Just point your Keyblade at it and manipulate the memories so that there's more Imagination in good ones. Not sure how you do that for a real world octopus though," Sebastian confessed.

"We'll do our best," Demyx replied, turning the Mysterious Abyss around so that the teeth were pointing at the octopus, doing some major guesswork of what went where. "Let's see… if I move this here… and then moved that over there… and then we put that there… I think that'll do it." He dispelled the Keyblade, using his hands to pick up the still knocked out octopus. "Let's put him back home. It's the least I could do after scaring him."

"It's the kindest thing to do. Though when we surface we must absolutely talk about the reasons why you've been chosen to become Sea Knight. And you are _not_ to goof off!"

"Yes Seb…"


	5. Episode 5: Beast Knight's First Chapter

**A/N:** It has been a long time since I updated anything. Reason: Massive Writer's Block and Stress caused by Parental Units. (and a job!) Anyways, with this episode now finished (yes!) I can now concentrate on more pressing matters (Chap. 38 of Ever After and Chap. 10 of Arashi no Rakuen).

There's also a bit of stress caused by this new sudden enforcement of a once practically unenforced rule. You know, the rating system. How "M" rated stories don't actually include certain aspects of what I believe _is_ mature reading. Hopefully my more tasteful way of doing things in M rated stories works in my favour... hopefully...

Anyways! Please enjoy Episode 5! LEON!

P.S. Many many references here. Can you name them?

* * *

><p><strong>~~<em>Beast Knight's First Chapter<em>~~**

Leon was something of an observer when it came to life. Although he was pretty much in a position of some authority at school, and even considered to be the school 'prince' as it were (which he definitely did NOT agree to), Leon was more likely to be found in a quiet spot in the library during break times at school. So of course he had observed some of the strange things he was hearing from people talking before class began after the lunch break. More to the point though, he had seen something he was pretty certain was suspect.

The spot he usually took up in the library was next to a window that looked into the school garden. And as he got up to change books after finishing a book he had been reading on and off for a week, his eyes caught a glimpse of something that he knew shouldn't have been there. Running away from where the school sports field was, he saw a boy in a strange costume, comprised of yellow billowing pants, blue bodice, and red armaments, cape and gold accessories, and he was holding something that looked like a strange key. Unless it was the drama club's doing, that brunet boy in the strange garb should not have been there. When he went into class, he intended to ask about it but the whole class was gossiping on how they couldn't remember a huge chunk of their lunch break at all.

Something very weird was going on here.

When he stopped Demyx Lowell, the declared "class clown", on his way out of the school, he had asked him if he had noticed anything strange. The goofball had replied that he hadn't, even though he wasn't a part of the strange sense of sluggishness that apparently struck the entire school. As much as Leon wanted to investigate that strange boy… he had to get home. Laguna no doubt would be needing help again tonight.

* * *

><p>The walk home was unadventurous and uneventful. Walk through town, avoid the Sandlot where no doubt Seifer and his goons would be, go walk over the bridge that linked Sunset Terrace to the town (Leon preferred the long way home to using a train) and then walk further still to the lone house that was a bit away from the rest of civilisation. It was said that long ago it was a farmhouse; now it was home of "Crazy Old Laguna", the guy that some parts of the year was travelling the world and when he was in residence was usually the cause of disrupted peace in the town. Leon sometimes wished his father was more normal. As he approached the old farmhouse, he noted that it was a lot quieter than usual.<p>

"This is the calm before the storm… isn't it…"

_BANG!_

A billowing cloud of smoke came out of the storage entrance to the basement. Leon sighed. Looks like Laguna had another flop. He dashed over, covering his mouth and waving his hand about to waft the smoke away as he descended down the stairs, trying to make out the figure of his father. "Hey! Hey are you okay?"

"Ah! Welcome home Squall!" Laguna's voice called through the smoke, followed by a couple of hacking coughs. "How was school today?" As the smoke started to fade away a little, Leon could see his dad was already trying to fix the infernal machine; apparently it was supposed to be some sort of heating device that would cut the electricity bills completely in half by Laguna's reckoning. Leon already saw it as an unmitigated disaster.

"It was alright I guess," Leon shrugged, walking over to him. "I guess your day has been… productive."

"Ah very very productive!" Laguna agreed absently while he fiddled with a couple of circuits. "This was the second explosion of the day!"

"Lucky us…"

"Very lucky! Ah! And I accidentally blew the fuses."

"You did what?-!"

"Oh don't worry! This time it didn't affect the town! We'll just have to use candles for tonight. Bought a huge load of them at the market. There was some candle holders going cheap as well. And a candelabra! I put that in your room, along with the clock. The cogs in there are too old school for me to use so I thought you might like it." Laguna would have stopped there if he saw the look of absolute despair on his son's face. Unfortunately, Laguna had something of a one track mind. He never realised his son was already walking up the stairs into their home.

* * *

><p>Leon's room was the one that overlooked the entirety of Twilight Town, from the Sunset Terrace district where they lived right up to the coastline that the town was situated nearby. It was a strange little town by most definitions; geographically placed between what constituted as a small mountain and the sea, it savoured long hot summers and cool winters, early dawns and very lengthy sunsets most of the year, hence where it procured its name from. Leon was a born and raised denizen of the town, but he yearned to see more sometimes. This place felt stifled by its geography.<p>

In the room itself, it was incredibly neat and tidy. He had a whole wall devoted to books, all in alphabetical order by author, and his desk was meticulously kept. His bed was neat at all times except for sleeping, coloured dark blue. There was a picture of him and his parents when he was little on a shelf just above his desk. The face he had made then was neutral. Maybe he knew of his parents upcoming divorce in a short three months after that picture was taken. Out of the ordinary in his usually neat and tidy bedroom was the golden (probably brass painted with gold) candelabra and fancy looking pendulum clock. There was what appeared to be a small teacup with pastal blue and purple designs around the gold leaf rims. There was a chip on the rim. Trust Laguna to buy something chipped from the market. He sighed and sat down, looking at the items.

"The candelabra I can understand… but he bought the clock and teacup just to appease me, didn't he?" Leon grumbled. He'd much rather a book. At least he could probably store small stray pieces of stationery in the teacup, like a pad of sticky-notes or paperclips. The clock was nice enough… he just hoped there wasn't a bell in there that would ring every hour. He picked the clock up… and heard something jiggle inside. Leon frowned. A loose cog? "Of course he'd buy something that was in some way faulty…" He turned the clock around; something jiggled again but this time it sounded like it hit the glass panel at the front of the clock. Was the pendulum broken? He turned it around again.

He did not expect to see what looked like a yellow heart-crucified-on-top-of-a-pointy-cross-shaped crystal inside. He blinked lightly at that. A treasure? Did the previous owner of this clock hide it in here? He opened the panel and put his fingers inside, pinching the crystal and bringing it out. It did look quite pretty and in the light it appeared to have something akin to an electric pulse inside. He wondered why anyone would hide this. He idly put the clock back in place. "You know…" he muttered to himself. "It would look like the kind of thing that had some sort of magic power." He laid down on his back on the bed, lifting the crystal up. It caught the light, that same look of electric pulsating inside its shining walls zapping about it. He smiled a little bit. Wouldn't hurt to dream. "Hmm… power on?" Nothing. "To infinity and beyond?" Still nothing. "…By the Power of Greyskull?" He frowned as once again there was no response. And those were the least embarrassing "suit up" commands that he could think of. He really was not going to go as far as to say "Moon Prism Power" or "By the magic of the Heart Stone". No. Way. Not even being pestered by his cousin Ellone was ever going to get him to say something out of her beloved magical girl shows that she forced him to watch as a little kid.

"Guess this isn't really anything special," Leon murmured. He sighed a little bit. So much for adventure. The hand holding the crystal ended up dropping onto his forehead, blocking the sun a bit from his eyes. What was he really hoping for? He closed his eyes, finding himself lightly napping.

* * *

><p>"How on earth are we going to get the crystal back?"<p>

Leon's eyes almost snapped open when he heard the unfamiliar voice. English accent?

"Maybe eef we wait for ah leetle while, he will le' go of eet." That was a French accent. Absolutely.

"But he'll notice if you get it Lumiere! You've lit your candles up!" That was a little kid's voice!

"Ah ho ho! But our reziden' timekeepuh 'appens to 'ave le limbs for the job. That shall be more than wonduhful."

"Oh don't be so ridiculous you flaming French feather-chaser. The wretched cogs in my body will alert my presence to the boy!"

"Eef you 'ave ah bettuh suggestion than by all means tell us."

The English accent and "Lumiere" began bickering. Leon didn't know if he should wake up and make a run for it if he could, or to stay completely still and let them take the crystal. They didn't seem to want anything else. _Stay calm Leon… for all you know this could be a dream…_ He then felt something jump onto his washboard stomach. Was it just him or did that feel like… the bottom of a teacup?

"Chip! What are you doing?-!" the English accent hissed.

"Chip! Come back!"

It hopped up his body. Closer… closer… Leon suddenly grabbed for it; teacup. Definitely. He sat up and stared at what was in his hands, almost dropping the teacup when he saw two big cartoonish eyes looking up at him in fear between the golden handle that functioned as its nose. "…I'm dreaming, right?"

"D-Don't hurt me!" the teacup cried, shaking in Leon's hands. "I-I'm gonna disappear! I know it! I want my Mama!"

Leon just stared at it for a while. It really was just a little kid calling for its mother. A teapot maybe? That'd be logical. _Why are you trying to make sense of something that is just… nonsensical?_ "Um… if you're meant to be disappearing, you're doing a bad job of it."

"Huh?" The teacup seemed to realise this. Then his terrified look changed into one of complete unabashed joy. "You're Beast Knight! We found you! We found you!"

"Beast… Knight?" He put the cup back on the desk, watching it hop about it merry joy.

"We found him! We found him Cogsworth! Lumiere!" the happy little thing chirped, hopping around the candelabra and clock. Leon watched in astonishment as facial features appeared on the items, the clock's hands moving to form some sort of moustache and the middle wax candle open its eyes and relight its wicks. _Okay… dream. Definitely a dream._

"Well, I certainly did not expect a young man to be who we were looking for, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose," the clock commented.

"Oh come now Cogzworth. We found heem een the end, right?" the candelabra replied.

"Wait… wait just a second," Leon started. "A talking candelabra, clock and teacup are in my room and acting like they've been searching for me when in reality they've been bought by my loony of a father. This is… most definitely a dream." He shook his head roughly and pinched himself, closed his eyes and counted to three. But no matter what he did he was still facing household items with faces on them.

"Well, I do suppose this is a bit strange in this world, but please allow me to introduce us to you," the clock began, surprising Leon at how supple its body movements were; the clock was bowing to him as if he were made of flesh and bone and not wood. "I am Cogsworth, the majordomo of Beast's Castle, formerly of the Fantasy Realm though hoping to be restored." He then pointed with a golden metal arm (again, much more supple that it appeared) to the candelabra. "This is the maitre'd Lumiere, and this little teacup is Chip Potts, who is the son of the castle cook."

"Er…" _Dreaming. Definitely dreaming._

"Now of course you are probably wonduhing just what eez ze Fantasie Realm," Lumiere began, waving his arms about with their alight wicks. Leon blew them out quickly, causing Lumiere to jump in surprise.

"Dream or not, you waving lit candles about is a fire hazard," Leon frowned. "I already have to deal with a massive household damages hazard in the shape of my father. I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to worry about a moving candelabra too."

"Ahh but of course," Lumiere smoothly responded, keeping his… hands… unlit. "En-nee-wayz. Ze Fantasie Realm."

"It's in big trouble! Really big trouble!" Chip piped up. "It's fading away!"

"Yes, young Chip is quite right about that. Our homeland, the Beast's Castle, has completely disappeared and the rest of the Fantasy Realm is fading away. Why, I hear you ask? Simple; the Heartless have been eating away at the Imagination of the humans in your world, which keeps the Fantasy Realm in tip-top condition when it's not being interfered with."

"And eef we don't find ze Keengdom Knights –which you, Beast Knight, 'appen to be one– then _Poof!_ Ze Fantasie Realm is gone."

_Either this is a really detailed dream or I am seriously losing it… or they really expect me to believe them._

"Please! You just got to help us!"

"…Give me one good reason why I should help." Leon thought it was high-time this dream ended now.

"Eh? What do you mean?" the candelabra asked.

"Give me a reason why I should help what are clearly figments of my sleep-deprived mind by what I can only assume is to be the pest control for a world that I know for a fact doesn't exist. Even if this was real, you'd have to be naïve, stupid or both to actually believe that I would just accept it without question." He shook his head and blew out the top candle, placing the yellow gem into the teacup. "Now if you excuse me dream enchanted talking objects, I'm going to sleep and pretend that this never happened."

"B-But Beast Knight! You must help us! We might as well say goodbye to our home if you don't help!"

"Listen… Cogsworth… it doesn't affect me so why should I help or care? If you seriously think I'm just going to do it because a talking clock tells me to do it, you're seriously-"

"Squall!" Laguna's voice yelled up. "I got takeaway on the table! Gonna go cold if you don't come quickly!"

_Right… so now my mind is starting to dream up a dinner with Laguna… great…_ He forced himself to sit up. The talking objects were still there, looking at him with hope. "You stay here," he said firmly. "We'll… continue this discussion later if I'm still dreaming."

"But Squall! You're not dreaming!" the teacup chipped in.

"Don't call me Squall," Leon grumbled. "It's Leon."

* * *

><p>The takeaway was the usual; Chinese from the Emperor's Palace. Egg-fried rice, sweet and sour pork, kung po prawns and fried chicken noodles. It was, in Laguna's words, the "feast of kings"; in other words, the meal that Laguna ordered when he felt he had a successful day with whatever infernal thing he had come up with. Leon would only humour his father whenever he waxed lyrical about how this new machine would be the making of some sort of technological advance, nodding and humming. It was the same old thing. The same freaking old situation where his father deluded himself into greatness while he would just nod. He no longer smiled at Laguna. There was a time when he honestly did believe that maybe his father was a genius. That time had long since passed.<p>

He was currently picking away at some stray piece of chicken idly, thankful that the candlelight hid his sullen expression. Of course, Laguna appeared to be in possession of owl-like eyesight. "Why the long face Squall?"

"It's nothing."

"Come on, you can tell me." He could see Laguna flash a grin in the candlelight. "You're not upset over the power cut? Did you need to use the computer today or something?"

"…Why do you keep on doing this?" he muttered quietly, not really hoping to be audible.

"Doing what?" Laguna asked. Clearly he was oblivious to all the chaos he had caused around his son's life.

Leon had just about had it with his father's lack of awareness. He stood up suddenly. "The stupid inventions. The power cuts. Everyone in town basically sees you as the village idiot! Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to watch you just keep on going like an idiot?-!" _And on top of this stupid, ridiculous thing that talking pieces of decoration and crockery that I've got to deal with! That has got to mean I'm going insane…_

"Squall…"

"Why can't you just be normal?-!" Maybe it was childish of him, but enough was enough. He just left the table without even giving Laguna a chance to respond. No doubt the old fool would return to tinkering with that bloody machine.

"Ah, Master Squall?"

Leon nearly jumped when his name was called for at the top of the stair, looking down to see Lumiere, Cogsworth and Chip looking up at him. Guess this wasn't a dream… maybe hallucinations? "Hnn…"

"You shouldn't really be so harsh to your father," Cogsworth pointed out. "After all, he probably has your best interest at-"

"No. He doesn't. If he had my best interests at heart he would stop the stupid inventor antics." Leon bent down to pick up the animated objects, holding Lumiere by the candelabra's shaft and cradling Cogsworth and Chip in his other arm. "I'm sick of having to deal with the pity party I get whenever he causes a mass power cut in town or causes an explosion." _That's right… he causes so much embarrassment for me… why can't he just be like a normal person?_

"He's still your Papa though," Chip said innocently, looking up at him with big black eyes.

"Yeah, well he certainly doesn't act like it." He put them on his desk, seeing that bright yellow crystal in Chip's cup bowel. He picked up and looked at it, sighing heavily. "And I don't think I'm being myself wishing that something as crazy as a Kingdom Knight even exists."

Leon woke up from his sleep with a start, hearing a beastly wail from inside the house. He had fallen into slumber after homework and his evening routine was done in complete silence, ignoring his unwanted guests for the most part. The sound… it chilled him to the bone. "What… what was that?"

"'eartless?-! Inside ze 'owse?-!" Lumiere yelped, his candlewicks going alight. Cogsworth and Chip had been woken up too by the noise.

"Heartless?"

"It's those shadow creatures that are eating up the Fantasy Realm!" Chip piped up. "They're coming to this world to do the same thing!"

Leon grabbed Lumiere by the shaft, turning to Cogsworth and Chip. "Chip, Cogsworth, stay here."

"Take this," Cogsworth insisted, taking out the crystal and holding it out to Leon with both of his 'hands'. "If it starts to react to you, you must say 'Gate to my Heart, open'. You'll understand what I mean when you get to it."

Leon took a hold of the crystal and held it tightly in his hand, not really understanding but for some reason he seemed to appreciate that this crystal was very important to him. "I'll be right back," he whispered, carefully stepping into the darkness of the house. Lumiere kept very silent throughout, but the sound of the creature echoed in their ears.

"_He_ **hates** _me_! Why_**does he**_hate _me?-! __**I'm**__ only _**trying**_ to __do my__**best**__ by _him_!_"

"Zis iz bad," Lumiere groaned. "Ze 'eartless haz taken on a conscious."

"What do you mean by that?"

"'Eartless survive by feedin' on ze frustrations of otherz. It contiminatez an' shadows ze 'earts. Then… it will devour them."

"So these things are dangerous?-! And there's one in my house?-!"

"Oui! Which means that ze 'eart it iz feedin' on now iz…"

"Laguna!" Leon's steps suddenly picked up speed, making a speedy journey to the cellar where no doubt Laguna had gone to after dinner. _What if he's hurt?-! Then… then it's all my fault for making him vulnerable!_ He stepped into the darkness, coming face to face with the thing that he had called the infernal machine.

A dark shadow gripped the metallic body, solar panels that were once blue now coloured and shaped into red leering eyes. Shadowy tendrils kept together a skeleton of tools Laguna had used to build the machine. A little bit away, between it and Leon, Laguna's slunk body was sitting on the floor, looking sorry for himself as a dark purple smoke-like aura surrounded him. The Heartless continued to scream out the frustrations… frustrations that Leon had caused. "Laguna!" He ran forward, ignoring Lumiere's screeching to stay back. He managed to forward roll past a swung limb, dropping Lumiere in the process but managing to get close to his father. "Come on Laguna. You can't possibly think I hate you because of what I said at dinner!"

"Master Leon! Look owt!"

Leon looked up, seeing an arm aiming to slam down on him and Laguna. Quicker than he had a chance to think, he grabbed his father from under the arms and threw themselves out of harm's way. That monster…

"It can sense you are ze Beast Knight Master Leon! It will try to destroy you!" Lumiere cried, having hidden himself under the wooden steps.

"What the hell do I do?-!"

"Transform into Beast Knight! Now!"

It must've been what Cogsworth was talking about. He gripped onto the crystal tightly, praying that this would work. "Gate to my Heart, open!" He didn't know what he was expecting. A shield? A force field? Maybe a sword? But whatever it was meant to do, it hadn't worked. "It's not working! Whoa!" Leon just about managed to duck, keeping his father's head down from being smashed by a projectile spanner. "Goddammit you old geezer! Now your own mess is trying to kill us!"

"_It's_ my **fault** _everything's gone_ wrong_! All I_ _**wanted to**_ _do was make_ _**Squall's**_ life **better**!"

If there was ever a moment when Leon felt like something had just shot through his bubble and destroyed it, it had been that one screamed out frustration. _No… I don't believe it… you weren't chasing after some stupid dream of becoming an inventor… you were just trying to help in your own way…_ He clenched his fist tightly. _The real idiot here… is me._ "I'm sorry…" he murmured, looking at Laguna and holding him tightly. _This is my fault. I made him feel like this without even realising what he really wanted to do. I… I never really knew my own dad…_ "Dad… I'm sorry…"

"Master Leon! Ze 'eartless!"

Leon looked up for a moment, seeing the tendril coming straight for them. _I'm not letting you touch Laguna!_ He covered Laguna with his body, bracing himself for the strike. It never came. He felt the crystal that had been in his hand suddenly spark to life, causing most of the electrics in the small room to enwrap around them and protect them from the Heartless' attack before forming into a yellow cocoon. He could feel the electricity form around him, causing every hair and inch of his skin to tingle. Even the fabric of his clothes felt electrified.

"What the hell is going on?-!"

"Ze crystal's responded to you! Say ze words! Now!"

"…Alright," Leon nodded. _This must be it._ He took a hold of his crystal and held it close to his chest. "Gate to my Heart, _open_!"

The electricity that had surrounded his body suddenly sparked up in power, causing his clothes to completely disintegrate around him; everything but his Griever pendant that had been given to him as a present from his cousin.

Starting from the neck down, a ring of electricity sparked and crackled around his body, merging his Griever pendant with a yellow ribbon first. Then it worked down to his chest; black, skin-tight leather off-the-shoulder top, fur-trimmed around his shoulders and yellow satin to form the shoulder, hanging off his left side. His arms were covered with a yellow satin as long fingerless gloves, going all the way up to his shoulder. His legs were first covered with a skin-tight leather pair of trousers, followed by a pair of knee-high black boots with two-inch platforms and yellow trimmings. A belt of yellow encompassed his waist, kept and fastened together by the yellow crystal in the middle. Finally his hair; some of his bangs on the left side of his face was pulled back by a band of gold, a yellow crystal shaped like a heart resting sidelong. Hanging from his ear was a small golden hoop earring.

He immediately put a hand over the crystal on his waist, summoning a crackle of electrical energy that shaped and forged itself into a weapon. Key-like in appearance, the shaft and handle was pure silver, the guard was pitch black with an etching of a rose down one half of the guard. Its teeth was shaped like a beast's head with a cross coming from its neck. For a keychain, it was five silver links attached to a charm of a beast's head appearing in the blossom of a rose, the yellow crucified heart crystal hanging from under it. He slashed it in the air for a few strikes, before letting it quiver against the floor of his electrified cocoon. "Shining like speeding thunder, a Tempered Heart." Two quick sweeps of his Keyblade –_Keyblade?_ – causing sparks to fly around him. He barely flinched as the weapon came to rest on his shoulder and he put his free hand on his hip. "Beast Knight!" The cocoon exploded, its electrified shards hitting the Heartless and forcing it back. Leon landed on his feet.

_Okay. Leon. Two things. One: What the Hell? And Two: What the Frick is going on?-!_

"Zat's it! Zat's it! Accepting ze responsibility iz a strength of Temperance!" Lumiere was piping from his hiding spot.

_Temperance…_ He looked at the thing. _I might have a chance now._ The thing was, the only weapon he had ever used in his life was a shinai. He supposed using the Keyblade as such wasn't too far away from its real use so he went immediately into choudan, pointing the teeth of the strange weapon at the Heartless' throat… or at least where he believed it was. _Okay… It's still feeding off Laguna if that strange purple stuff around him is anything to go by… and its way too confined down here… I need to get that thing up the storage entrance._ He suddenly ran forward, keeping his blade low and slashing the creature's mechanical made knee as he dashed past. _Keep running to the exit. Don't stop Leon. _He could hear it chase after him. _Get it outside. Get it outside. Plenty of room. Won't destroy any of Laguna's work down there. I've got to get it away from Laguna._

He leapt out into the open, quickly getting into position to face it head on, holding the Keyblade in choudan. The Heartless infernal machine climbed out with a thunderous clatter, screeching in frustration at the newly made Kingdom Knight.

"Master Leon! Up here!" Leon's eyes quickly darted up to his bedroom window, seeing Cogsworth and Chip jumping up and down. "The Sleeping Beast you're holding is one of the strongest Keyblades! Use its magic!"

_Don't ask how. Not enough time. Focus on defeating this thing._ The Heartless made its move, charging straight for Leon. In return, the teenager quickly sidestepped and struck the Heartless from behind, not even realising that, as a result of his newly acquired powers, his combination cuts that he had mastered in the kendo squad were quickly and had much more power behind them, each one releasing a bullet of electrical magic as they connected.

"Leon! Watch out!" Chip screeched from the window. The brunet had backed off from his attack, but was too late to realise the 'arm' of the Heartless was being swung at him. Leon felt the wind rush out of his body, feeling it collide against the house with extreme force. He crumpled to the ground, wincing in pain as he struggled to keep his eyes open. The Heartless was now beginning to stalk him. _Think Leon. If this Keyblade's got magic… then maybe…_ He took a deep calming breath, focusing hard on storing up masses of the magical energy within him. _You're an electrical magnet… you're an electrical magnet… and you're going to unleash all you've got against this infernal CONTRAPTION!_

"_Kingdom…!_" The Heartless seemed to falter as electrical sparks started to fly and crackle around the slowly rising Kingdom Knight, becoming more violent the more the tall brunet focused on gathering the energy. Leon looked up suddenly, pure angry lightning in his eyes. "_Thunder Dash!_" With all the energy powering him forward, he launched himself towards the Heartless, releasing energy in a fierce explosion just as he passed it out of harm's way. As expected by Leon, the vicious electricity had caused the mechanical parts of the Heartless to short-circuit. Leon smirked a bit. _Definitely there are some perks to this._ He turned around, seeing that the shadowy aura that had surrounded the Heartless had diminished somewhat.

"Now's your chance, Master Leon!" Lumiere yelled from his spot at the basement storage entrance. "Gather up ze energie for a 'Owling Circle!"

It was almost like second nature as soon as he heard that direction. Howling Circle. He knew how to do that. He brought his Keyblade to the air, once more using his "I am an electrical magnet" mantra in his mind. Even though there was no forecast for a thunderstorm tonight, it was almost as if his Keyblade had forcibly stole all the static electricity being stored in the clouds. He felt it pulse up and down his blade and down into his body, but he barely flinched. "_Beast Knight…_" He brought the Keyblade around in a circle in front of him, leaving a circle of electric yellow magic. He then put his Keyblade's teeth straight in the centre, watching the large circle suddenly contract and shrink around it. "_Howling…__**CIRCLE!**_" He had earlier felt a trigger on the handle of the Keyblade; he now pushed it to release the circle, almost flinching as he heard the energy wrapped around the teeth of his Keyblade scream with electric thunder towards the Heartless. He had a light smirk on his face as he watched the screeching circle collide with aplomb, the Heartless destroyed in an explosion of sparks and mechanical parts as he rested the Sleeping Beast against the back of his neck and shoulder. "Hmph. Like talking to a wall."

"Well done Master Leon!" Lumiere chirped, hopping over to the Kingdom Knight. Leon bent down and picked up the candelabra by his body. "Now we just need to heal up your father with your Keyblade." Leon nodded his head, walking back to the basement. But all the while… _This is strange… I'm thankful that I can help Laguna but… _

* * *

><p>All the while through healing, seeing Laguna's doubts and fears and also his triumphs and those huge goofball smiles, Leon kept thinking of what he had let himself in for. Even as he left his father in his room and went back to his own, waiting for the transformation to fade away while watching the moon, he still… "Cogsworth… Lumiere… Chip…"<p>

"What is it Master Leon?" Cogsworth tiredly asked, having put himself into "sleep mode" after all the excitement of the day. Chip was still asleep, while Lumiere dimly flickered back to wakefulness.

"These Heartless… are they going to hurt more people?"

"It is entirely possible Master Leon," Cogsworth answered honestly. "We'll talk more in the morning… you need to rest." He yawned. "And so do we."

_I'm sorry… but I don't think I'm the guy you want._ He looked at the crystal again, seeing that it had turned into just a keychain. He had attached it to his Griever pendant's chain, seeing as it sort of fit with the theme of gunmetal and beasts. _I used your power to save Laguna. I didn't even realise that some of things I've said to him had caused him a lot of hurt. You need someone who can really take on the responsibility._ He sighed, placing it on his desk. _I have enough responsibility on my shoulders._


	6. Episode 6: Snow Knight Learns the Story

**A/N:** Sorry for the delays. I'm thoroughly behind on all my work due thanks to a broken laptop and just being really busy most days. I barely have time to write orz

Anyways! Thank you for reading, reviewing and generally being patient with me! I hope you enjoy this episode too!

* * *

><p><strong><em>~Snow Knight Learns the Story~<em>**

It was the rare quiet point of the day for Sora. After picking up the septuplets from their school at 4:30pm, they would return home in their ragtag bundle at about 5pm. The septuplets homework would be done first, then Sora would cook dinner for 7pm and get them to bed by 9pm. His father sometimes would get home by 8pm, but tonight wasn't such a day that he would.

With the septuplets now in their seven beds in their room, Sora was now in his own bedroom, working on homework. Donald and Goofy were sitting on the shelf above his desk. They hadn't said a word since telling Sora how to revert back from his Snow Knight get-up, the whole secrecy of the Fantasy Realm being the prime concern for them. Now that there was no chance of being heard, Donald finally spoke.

"We should probably explain what's going on better."

"Hmm?" Sora looked up; in all honesty, he had hoped he had just a really active daydream earlier on. "You mean, there's more that I need to know?"

"A~hyuk~ don't you wanna know what's going on?" Goofy asked.

"Heartless are eating up Fantasy Realm and they've come here to do the same, right?"

"That's about it in simpler terms," Donald replied, pushing his plushie body off the shelf and onto the desk. "You know that Heartless feed on Imagination, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, the Fantasy Realm is completely made from Imagination," Donald began. "It's like the life force for the Fantasy Realm. If you take it away from the Fantasy Realm, it will slowly die."

"And Imagination comes from humans. Particularly from their hearts, a~hyuk~."

"Okay… so Heartless feed on the Imagination too?" Sora questioned.

"Yes. But the problem is that they eat the hearts too. And they don't stop there." Donald's bill downturned into a frown at that point. "Once they've eaten the hearts, they can multiply, but multiplying also means that they need to eat more hearts and Imagination. They're a pest."

"And they can only start eating Imagination if they corrupt it. Am I right about that?"

"A~hyuk~! Looks like you understood that really well!" Goofy praised.

"If the Heartless threat isn't dealt with, Fantasy Realm is all but history. And the Human Realm needs the Fantasy Realm."

"Huh? Why?" Sora asked.

"It's a little complicated, but the simplified explanation is this: any story directly linked to the Fantasy Realm helps human hearts produce Imagination which keeps them happy. In return, that Imagination comes to us and keeps the Fantasy Realm alive." Donald nodded his head sagely. "Of course, if people stop telling the stories, they won't be able to create Imagination for themselves let alone for us."

"So Imagination keeps us happy?"

"Yeah," Donald nodded his head. "It's a bit more convoluted than that, but that's how it works in the simplest terms."

"Hmm…" Sora didn't want to mention that he was finding it hard to see how Imagination really worked as an energy source for both worlds, but Sora wasn't exactly the smartest kid in the class. More like their most average student. Science was his worst subject. This seemed like a science. "So… if I'm supposed to have the heart of Snow White, does that mean she could use a Keyblade? How come she's not fighting herself?"

"That's easy!" Goofy grinned. "A Princess of Heart has the power to create a Keyblade, but they can't use them. So when the Fantasy Realm is in trouble, they create a Keyblade for someone who can use it, a~hyuk~."

"But not this time?"

"This time the Heartless attacked the Princesses of Heart at their homes. They didn't have the time to call for help," Donald quacked. "And on top of that, the attack happened when the King went missing, and he's the most senior Keyblade wielder in the Fantasy Realm!"

"Wait, so the Fantasy Realm got attacked at its weakest point?"

"Ah-Yup," Goofy confirmed. "So as you can see, the Princesses had to resort to their emergency plan, a~hyuk~."

"They released their hearts and set off for the human world to find vessels that were similar to them," Donald finished. "And you're the one that Snow White decided." He then snickered a bit. "Maybe she chose you because you take care of seven dwarves yourself."

"Oi! Those are my siblings you're talking about!" Though that probably isn't far off from what she had done back in her story, Sora had thought. "But why would she choose me though? I'm nothing special."

"Weren't you listening Sora? I said "similar to them". That means that you shared a lot of qualities Snow White had." Donald now attempted to stand on his plushie feet; both plush toys were finding it a bit difficult to move their flaccid bodies around. "Snow White was honest to a fault. Kind too. Sometimes her honesty got her into a world of trouble since she was about as oblivious as they come."

"A~hyuk~hyuk~hyuk~," Goofy laughed. "Snow White once told Donald that he looked silly in his Dream Festival costume the year before she disappeared. All the other Princesses of Heart and everyone else told a white lie to him, a~hyuk~!"

"Hey! You told me I looked fine!" Donald squawked indignantly.

"Bad costumes aside, you're saying that my tendency to be oblivious is what made her choose me?"

"One of the reasons, not the only reason," Donald corrected. "Anyways! I should warn you that you might experience weird dreams at first or strange pains. Don't worry about it too much. It's just you and Snow White harmonizing with each other."

"That's… reassuring…" Sora sighed a little bit, leaning onto his elbows. "So anything else I should be worried about?"

"You should start worrying about finding the other six Kingdom Knights," Goofy informed. "That way you'll become more powerful against the Heartless."

"But what about the rest of the world?" Sora asked. Surely if Heartless were attacking his town that they'd be popping up in other places across the world.

"You don't have to worry about that," Donald piped up. "This place is the only way to get to and from the Fantasy Realm as there is a concentration of energy here."

"A~hyuk~ it's also the closest place to the Fantasy Realm, so it's easier to travel between the two realms."

_It still doesn't really make sense_, Sora thought. Then again, who in the world would be able to understand the science of this? All Sora needed to know was that there was a world in danger, his home was about to become infested with a psyche-stealing parasite if something wasn't done about it, and he and six others were the only ones able to get rid of said parasite. What more needed to be understood? "Alright. I think I understand the basics." He nodded his head. "What happens if the Fantasy Realm disappears?"

"Well," Donald began, looking a little uncertain. Goofy's felt face fell into a sorrowful look. Donald looked back to Sora. "If the Fantasy Realm disappears, we won't exist. Not one fairytale character or any character that sparked people's Imagination is going to exist. We'll all be forgotten."

"No way…"

"Can you remember the story of Pinocchio?" Donald asked.

"Oh that's easy! That's the story of…" Sora paused, suddenly struggling to remember. "Of course it's easy! Aki loves that story! It's about…" He forced himself to picture it. But he couldn't remember a thing. Nothing. Not even the most obvious of details. He couldn't even remember the moral attached to it!

"A~hyuk~ It's the story of the little wooden puppet that wanted to be a human boy," Goofy helped him. "His nose would grow if he lied, and he also got turned into a part donkey for being badly behaved, a~hyuk~."

"Huh? How come I can't remember any of that?-!" Sora yelped. Now that he thought about it, Aki hadn't asked to be told that story in such a long time. Sora had just put it down to him thinking he was too big to be told bedtime stories.

"Because Pinocchio's home and many of the characters from that story have completely disappeared," Donald sadly explained. "As a direct result, no one remembers the story because so much of it has been lost."

"Just because… of those Heartless things?"

"A~hyuk~ That's the gist of it. Other than that, we don't know why they appeared or where they even come from."

Sora puckered his lips and forced them to the side, thinking on this. It didn't take a genius to see that it was possibly going to cause problems for his world if he didn't help out. Without the stories, no Imagination. No Imagination, and from the sounds of it the world was just going to be a very miserable place to live in. "So if we find out where they're coming from and why they're here, we might be able to save both worlds?"

"That's our best option at the moment," Donald quacked. "For all we know, there might be a hive of Heartless that needs to be taken care of."

"Right," Sora nodded. "Find the others. Find out what's going on. Send the Heartless back where they belong!" He caught a glance of the Keychain that he now wore as a bracelet; seven apples, each a colour of the rainbow, with the red crystal heart dangling from it. Each apple, in his mind, representing what meant the most to him. The septuplets that were sleeping soundly in their seven beds. _I may not be the Snow White everyone thought Mom was… but I'll do my best by you guys_. He then grinned brightly. "Let's go for it, Donald, Goofy."

* * *

><p>That night, the cogs of fate had begun to turn for the residents of Twilight Town. While four boys had found themselves thrust into the fray of a totally different world, other forces were now at work, alerted to their presence. No one noticed as stories began to fade from their memories, or notice as the smallest of shadows scuttled about in the darkness. At a certain convenience store often frequented by Sora on his way back to his sibling's school from his own, the smallest of shadows slipped away into the darkness of some garden pots that were on sale outside the store. If anyone took the time to look, they might have noticed the strange, round yellow eyes peeking out from time to time.<p>

It would now wait for the right person to come over with enough Frustration for it to feed on.

* * *

><p>Wake up at 6:30, shower, brush teeth, change into uniform, wake the septuplets at 6:45, get them to change into their outfits for the day, make them all breakfast while saying goodbye to their Dad before he rushed out for work at 7, wrangle them all into jackets and shoes by 7:15 and start walking to their elementary school for 7:45. It would give Sora time to catch the bus to his school at 7:56 in the next street over and be at the gate by 8:15. However, rather than head straight for the classroom, Sora quickly secluded himself behind some bushes by the gate and took Donald out of his school bag; Goofy had opted to stay in "sleep mode" unless needed later.<p>

"Okay, so how do I know who's a Kingdom Knight?" Sora asked Donald quietly.

"You have your Keychain, right?" Donald asked. Sora lifted his right hand up in response, showing the Keychain being worn like a bracelet. "With any luck, the crystal should respond to any that are close by." Donald then sighed. "Though narrowing your search down is going to be difficult if the Princesses decided that gender wasn't an issue."

"How about we narrow it down to the people at school who didn't get sapped by that Heartless yesterday?" Sora suggested. That struck Wakka, Tidus and the entirety of the Blitzball team off the list of possible candidates.

"You could, but that's still a lot of people Sora. How are you gonna track all of them down?"

"Well, with any luck it's still being talked about," Sora chirped. "So anyone that said that they didn't feel it happen could be the guy or girl we're looking for."

Donald frowned a little bit, though it was clear that the logic was there. "Just try to act natural Sora. You don't want people to start thinking you're weird."

"No need to worry about that Donald." He carefully put Donald back in his bag. "Relax~ I'll find the others in no time flat~"

"Don't say things you don't know are going to be true!" Sora barely heard the 'And don't tell anyone about the Fantasy Realm' as he zipped the bag closed.

* * *

><p>Sora's luck could be described as thus: indescribably poor.<p>

It seemed that everyone in the school had felt the presence of the Heartless that he had defeated only yesterday, with talk of a few more similar encounters that had happened in the Sandlot in town and something eerie along the beach front and in Sunset Terrace near "Crazy Old Loire's" place (though Sora wondered if it had something to do with one of the crazy loon's newest inventions). He did think for a moment is crystal had flashed on the one occasion that he passed Roxas and Hayner but he was dubious about that. A long time ago, Sora and Roxas used to be the best of friends. Then they sort of parted ways after elementary school, though Sora couldn't remember the reason why. Ever since, Roxas always did his best to just avoid him, even refusing to look him in the eye.

Sora wondered if he was just acting upon some impossible hope that maybe at least one person he knew, friend or not, was in the same boat as him. Of course, he didn't nearly expect to be called out once school had ended. By the "ice prince of Destiny High" no less (or so fans called one Squall Leonhart).

"Hey. You."

Sora stopped just as he passed the school gate, surprised to see the senior student leaning against the wall. If he had even taken any notice of his Keychain, he would have noticed that the crystal was glowing fairly violently now. "Y-Yeah?"

"Yesterday… did you notice anything unusual?" the brunet asked, keeping his blue-grey stare on the younger student steadily.

Now for someone who did a fairly decent job of living a relatively quiet and unassuming student life, Sora did what most kids like him would do. Go into a sheer panic on the inside, fail to hide it on the outside. "Y-Yesterday? You're mean l-like when everyone suddenly j-just felt tired and… stuff…?"

"There's that, but I was wondering if you noticed anyone… unusual wandering around the school grounds," Squall said, narrowing his gaze. Sora's heart did a little jump of fear. _DID HE SEE ME IN THE SNOW KNIGHT GETUP?_

"Nope! Nope! Didn't see anything at all! Not even after the weird thing happened!" Sora knew he was laughing uneasily between sentences; that was sure to send signals to the "ice prince". Squall frowned lightly at him, then shook his head and pushed himself off the wall.

"Well, if you're sure," he started. "If you remember seeing anything like that happen though, let me know." He walked straight past Sora after that, without saying anything further. Only when he was gone did Sora think to check his crystal.

It was quiet now.

* * *

><p>His mind was swimming in what had happened earlier. Had Squall seen him while he was Snow Knight? Was he looking into what had happened? Did he think… did he think Snow Knight was responsible? He felt his bag shudder on his back. Donald or Goofy probably want to speak to him. He took a quick look up and down the aisle he was in at the moment before reaching for one his straps and giving it two tugs; coast was clear. He heard the zip open and felt a plush beak on his shoulder. "So any luck at school Sora?"<p>

"No such luck," Sora sighed, reaching out to pick up some red apples for the septuplets' dessert tonight. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?" Donald asked.

"When I'm… you know, in the super hero form, can anyone recognise me?"

"Magic is protecting your identity when you're Snow Knight. Don't worry about it. Did something happen earlier?"

_Okay… so he _thought_ it was me if he did see me. That probably doesn't mean he suspects me… I hope._ "Nothing. Just curious." He tied the bag he was handling into a bow, happy with the eight red apples inside. Next he needed to grab some eggs, milk, sugar… He almost yelped as he felt Goofy start to twitch in his bag roughly. "Goofy?"

"Heartless," Goofy whispered sharply, his nose poking out and sniffing the air. "Really close by."

"How close?" Sora whispered, uncertainly walking towards his next destination in the store.

"Not in the store," Goofy murmured. "Outside. It hasn't done anything yet though…"

Sora nodded, just trying to continue as normal even though the knowledge of a nearby Heartless worried him. He couldn't feel the difference, and everyone in the store seemed to be acting normally. How was he supposed to get rid of the Heartless before it had a chance to act? He couldn't transform into Snow Knight right here and now in front of people!

A carton of twelve eggs would be more than enough. They could have an omelette each in the morning since he would only need three for the apple pie tonight. Sora flinched when all of a sudden there was a scream from outside. The Heartless?-! That strange feeling had just completely washed over him. He looked around; it happened so suddenly. Everyone in the store was looking lethargic, as if they were about to fall asleep. He could see the Heartless outside; its whole body was completely comprised of pots, and the screeches of Frustration echoed in the whole area. _Couldn't it have waited until I actually paid for the shopping…_ He felt his bag fully unzip and heard Donald and Goofy jump from it. "Guess there's no way out of this then," Sora sighed, putting his stuff down with the two plushies. "Take care of this for me."

"Are you sure Sora? You've only been Snow Knight once! You still don't really know how to fight!" Donald quacked.

"I can't just stand here and do nothing!" He then looked down at Donald and Goofy and grinned widely; he was hiding the fact that he didn't really want to do this. "But I don't want to fight with the shopping either just in case it gets broken, so take care of it for me." He then dashed forward, exiting the store and skidding to a halt. The Heartless was still wailing, but its back was turned to him. He had to locate the source of the Frustration but it was so loud that he couldn't even make out the words to give him some sort of clue. He raised his wrist up, unclasping the Keychain from around it and taking the crystal into his hands, the seven coloured apples dangling between his fingers. _Okay Sora… just say it. No one's really listening._ "Gate to my Heart, _open_!"

The crystal burst into light, causing his arms to be forced apart and the earthen warmth completely take over. First the ruby-red bracers on his arms came into being. Then the light hardened rock-solid around his legs and feet; yellow baggy pants and ruby-red greaves over yellow inch-high knee-length boots. Now the bodice-like top with gold and ruby-red pauldrons appeared. The shining wave of light became the red cape, kept in place by the two shining matching rubies to his top. He could feel the warm liquid light forge itself into a red belt with the crucified red heart crystal in the centre again, followed by the string of diamonds, rubies and rounded up pearls of golden ore that went around his hips. The red ribbon wrapped around his neck. And finally, the light forged his tiara that went around his forehead, the heart-shaped jewel twinkling in the centre. He opened his eyes that had been closed throughout, and put his hand over the crystal on his belt, summoning the Sweet Apple to appear. _Oh god… here comes the really embarrassing part…_ He put his free hand on his heart. "Shining like earthen jewels, an Honest Heart. Snow Knight!" Now that hand was in the air in a victorious pose, grinning brightly as if he had just won the battle.

Which of course, he hadn't. Not yet anyway. The Heartless only now turned around, suddenly going very quiet at sensing Snow Knight's arrival.

"He doesn't look so scary," Sora murmured, tilting his head to the side. He wasn't nearly as big as the one from yesterday. His grin returned; he felt confident. "Alright! I'm gonna wrap this up in no time flat!" He dashed forward, keeping his Keyblade up resting behind his neck.

The next thing Sora knew, he was lying flat on his back with the wind taken out of him. The Pot Heartless had just fired off one of the smaller pots that made up its hands, landing square in Snow Knight's stomach and causing him to collapse on the floor. It was cackling with hilarity, like a school kid's prank had just been successful.

"Donald told you that you weren't ready to fight alone, a~hyuk~," Goofy's voice chuckled. Sora just turned his head towards the store door, giving him a very unimpressed look.

"So I can't fight on my own because I don't know how to control the power. That what you're telling me?" he asked passively.

"A~yup~" Goofy then hopped onto his shoulder and pushed it as best as his plushie body would allow him. "C'mon! I'll help ya!"

Sora nodded his head, getting back to his feet and dusting himself off. He picked up Goofy and placed him on his shoulder. In the back of his mind, he wondered if the other Kingdom Knights were finding this whole transformation business troublesome as well. "So… Goofy, what can you tell me about this one?"

"It's a baby," Goofy chirped. Sora almost fell over sideways.

"A baby?-! That's a baby?-!"

"You can't make out where the Frustration is coming from because it's gobbling it all up. You're better off just knocking it over so that it can't feed anymore."

"Okay." Sora was about to move off when Goofy tugged his hair lightly.

"One more thing~ It's pretty solid so call out 'Goofy Shield' to protect yourself, a~hyuk~"

"What is that supposed to- Whoa!" Sora just managed to backstep out of the way as a barrage of tiny garden terracotta pots was shot at him, yelping as he dodged even more flying in his direction. He barely heard Goofy yell at him to say the stupid thing; right now, if this was some magic trick that was going to give a great big tennis racket to thwack them back at the Heartless, that would be just dandy! "_Goofy Shield!_"

Sora watch in absolute wonder as Goofy suddenly rocketed from his shoulder. In a loud explosion and a poof of smoke, a large round shield appeared, protecting the Kingdom Knight from harm. What alarmed Sora was that he could hear Goofy's voice yelping and yipping in pain. "Goofy!"

"No worries~! I may not be able to take my true form here but I can still help ya!"

"But-"

"Don't worry about me Snow Knight! Let's worry about everyone else!"

_Damn it… he's right… _He grabbed a hold of the Goofy shield, letting the Sweet Apple hang off his shoulder through the loop of its guard. "Alright Goofy. Let's take this Heartless down!"

"Right with you Snow Knight!" Goofy trilled. "Push me along! I'll yell for you to attack when I see a clean shot for you!"

Sora did just that, feeling Goofy vibrate after every hit he took. He didn't seem to complain though, but that worried the Kingdom Knight. Was Goofy just toughing it out for their sake? _Goofy wouldn't have had to do this… if I was more careful…_

"Almost there Snow Knight! It's almost run out of ammo!"

"Should I go for it then?-!"

"We'll go for a combination attack first and then you can defeat it!" Goofy called back. He then yelped. "Now! Throw me!"

"What?-!"

"Now Snow Knight!"

Sora hesitated for a moment, but steeled himself, grabbing onto Goofy's sides tightly and holding the shield flat, seeing Goofy's face for the briefest of seconds. He was still grinning like a goofball. "Okay. Here we go!" Sora forced his body to spin, trying to ignore how heavy the vast shield was in his arms. _Throw it like you would a discus in athletics…_ "_Goofy… Bash!_" He released the shield straight into the Heartless, looking on in disbelief as the shield-form of Goofy kept hitting the Heartless multiple times every time it returned like a boomerang. Soon though, Goofy retreated back to Sora's side, changing back to his default plushie form. The Heartless was tottering about on its feet now.

"There's your chance! Go for it!"

"Right!" He re-summoned the Sweet Apple to him, twirling it in his hand and pointing it straight at the floored Heartless. _Here we go again! _"_Snow Knight_…" He started twirling around, getting faster and faster until he was caused the small gold and red tornado to enwrap and hold his form aloft, watching as leaves got caught up in it. "_Sweet…__**MEMORY**_!" He flicked his Keyblade to the Heartless, urging the winds to go hurtling to the Heartless. He watched as the gold and red winds impacted, the Heartless going up in an explosion of red and gold glitter as it cried with agony. Sora landed on his feet and watched as the darkness disappeared and the plant pots were returned to normal. He let out a big sigh of relief. "Right… now where did all that Frustration come from…"

"Snow Knight! Over there!" Goofy was pointing to the alley that lead to the back of the convenience store. Sora peeped in. Lying on the ground was one of the shop assistants, looking exhausted. He dashed over to her, pointed his Keyblade at her heart and opened up. Obviously she had been having a really bad time with work, not being able to pay the rent in time and just feeling like everything was falling apart.

"I guess I'm not going to catch a break with this if Heartless take advantage of even just somebody having a bad day," Sora muttered, starting up the healing process. It was over before he could even blink.

Then he realised that he had his shopping to do and he still hadn't mastered changing back to his default appearance. "Ah crap!" He ran back into the store before anyone in the vicinity could start stirring, grabbing his things and Donald and leaving money on the counter for his purchases before dashing off. "Ahhhhh! Why did it have to appear at such an inconvenient time!" He launched himself up onto the rooftops to avoid being noticed. _Being a Kingdom Knight really sucks!_

* * *

><p>Just a little bit away, a lone figure with his features hidden by a hooded black cloak watched with his arms folded, chuckling lightly to himself. "Snow Knight huh… barely worth even worrying about if he still can't fight on his own." If someone had seen him, they would have dismissed it as their eyes playing tricks on them, because he was gone almost as quickly as he had appeared.<p> 


	7. Episode 7: Dream Knight Makes a Wish

A/N: While being back at uni doesn't mean to say that updates will be a little more frequent as I get out of the summer lull, it does mean that I don't have a 'wireless curfew' to deal with. This chapter has been a long time coming; I've been struggling with ending it. Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing last chapter :)

Time to put the **SPARKLE** factor on (poor Roxas XD)

* * *

><p><em><strong>~~Dream Knight Makes a Wish~~<strong>_

For the most part, Roxas didn't really think his life had changed all the dramatically on the evening that he found out he was a Kingdom Knight. It just became a little more exciting, and he also saw it as a good way to escape the dreariness of his current Cinderella-like life.

Soon as he had returned home and managed to return to his normal appearance (which did take quite a long while he had to admit), he quickly returned to his normal routine; make sure the microwave dinner for stepmother and Larxene was suitably chilled in the fridge, if not make it for Larxene and deliver it to her bedroom (whilst also getting some verbal abuse from her), do any laundry needing to be done, vacuum "public rooms" (so-called by the stepmother) and then make sure the cat was fed and watered. Most likely deal with the cat litter. Possibly start trying to fix any damage caused by said cat. It was a light load really compared to the weekends, but it still asked for a lot of his time. On top of that, he had to keep his own room clean and make sure he had eaten something himself. Usually, it was a pretty difficult task.

So it was a pleasant surprise for him when he came back with enough food to feed himself and his two new houseguests to an almost sparkling bedroom. He blinked. Heavily. "Wh-What?"

"RoxRox! JakJak and GusGus cleaned yer room!" Jacques chimed brightly from his desk. Gus was bashfully waving back; his bandaging didn't look so bloody as last time.

"But… how?" Roxas asked, going over to them and putting dinner down on his desk top. "No offence guys, but I can hold both of you in my hands easily."

"Majik!" Gus said cheerfully, lifting up the Stroke of Midnight Keychain that Roxas had left on his desk so to protect it from Larxene's sights. "We wish!"

Roxas looked confused. He took the Keychain from Gus' hands and took a look at it. "You wished?"

"ZyukZyuk!" Jacques confirmed. "Dream Knight power means wishes come true! Can do anything!"

"Hmm… I wonder…" He took a deep breath and pulled the Keychain close to his heart. "I wish that I had the means to be able to do all my chores in at least ten minutes." He yelped when the blue crystal hanging from the Keychain reacted by lighting up. It floated from his hands, and changed shape into what looked like a rather slim white wand with the crystal resting at the top and the rest of the Keychain hanging from the end. "What the…?"

"Ooooo RoxRox is amazing!" Jacques and Gus were both applauding him. "Fairy Lady musta given Cindarelly the power to use majik stickstick!"

"Wait? You mean this is the Fairy Godmother's wand?-!" Roxas exclaimed, looking at it in complete awe. "Why would she allow someone like me to use it?-!"

"RoxRox is Cindarelly and Cindarelly is RoxRox~ Why not trust RoxRox?" Jacques beamed. Gus was currently helping himself to some sweet corn on Roxas' plate for the mice.

_But even magic can't make all wishes come true… right?_ There was at least one wish he knew no amount of magic could ever make true. Even so… it was better to embrace the new change than to fight it. In his mind, it made life a little more bearable. "Well… there's not much I can do with this now…" He looked to the now happily munching mice; it looked like they were really enjoying the titbits he had gotten together for them. They needed a place to sleep. He couldn't ask them to stay in his drawers at night. "Ah! I have an idea."

Quickly, he went over to the storage cupboard in his attic room; as expected, Larxene's old dollhouse was sitting on the top shelf. It looked about the right size for the two mice, though it could have done with some TLC. _Okay wand… let's see what you've got._ He pointed the tip of the wand at the dollhouse.

"RoxRox? What gonna do?" Jacques asked.

"Watch," Roxas replied. He took a deep breath. "I wish that we could get that dollhouse fixed for Jacques and Gus." He watched, almost gleefully, when he saw the crystal at the wand's tip respond with a sparkling light. He gave it a quick flick, watching as that sparkling light shot out towards the dollhouse. It was lowered from its place on the shelf onto the floor near Roxas' bed, shining for a moment before shedding that light to reveal a practically gleaming dwelling for the mice. It almost looked brand new. "Well… that's handy," Roxas smiled, looking back at the wand. It reverted back into the Keychain, as if pretending to be unassuming. _I guess I could use it to help me around the house now that I've got this Kingdom Knight business to deal with as well._

"Woooow!" Gus yipped, clambering down from the desk to go inspect the new home. "Pretty!"

"Any good?" Roxas asked. Gus answered with a thumbs up and a big smile. Jacques scuttled over to his side now.

"RoxRox, you help Fantashie Realm?" he asked.

"Well… it doesn't look like I have much choice if what you told me is true," Roxas said. He cupped both mice into his hands and helped them into their new home. "Though, I'm not sure how much help I'll be."

"ZyukZyuk! Find other Kin'dom Knights an' you be strooong!" Jacques exclaimed. "JakJak know it!"

"Hmm…" He looked at the Keychain again. Finding other Kingdom Knights… was it really that simple? Was it really as simple as to get rid of the Heartless so to save the Fantasy Realm and his own world?

Roxas wasn't sure. He had experiences of knowing that things weren't as simple as they appeared.

* * *

><p>Every weekday morning, Roxas would get up early to do his chores for that morning, get changed for school, grab something to eat and pack his stuff, then he would walk towards Hayner's place to pick Hayner up on the way. Although there was a change to today's proceedings. While making sure that Jacques and Gus were okay from time to time (he had thought it was best they accompanied him rather than risk the chance of the cat getting into his room), he was also looking at the Keychain that was fastened around his wrist like a bracelet, hidden mostly under his wristband. With any luck, the crystal would start glowing when it sensed another Kingdom Knight nearby. <em>But that could take forever… I've got no clues as to who they could be and this is a huge town. For all I know we could all be at different schools, or not even the same ages. <em>Then he had worrying thought. _I could be partnered up with a pervert!_

"Oi! Are you even listening to me?-!" Roxas yelped as he felt the back of his head being swatted, glaring at Hayner. He seemed okay. He looked even more energetic than usual.

"You were saying that you had a strange dream about some caped crusader saving you from this monster and then pretty much telling you that you just need to think more positively rather than obsess over Seifer. I did hear you the first time Hayner," Roxas droned. What would Hayner think if that caped crusader he had dreamed of was actually walking right next to him! "You gonna take any advice from that?"

Hayner let out a heavy sigh, putting his hands behind his head and looking up at the sky. "I guess. I got so worked up over Seifer that nothing else seemed to matter. Sounds stupid, doesn't it?"

"No. It doesn't." Roxas looked over to Hayner with a smile. "I think you should concentrate on having fun in Struggle bouts and on what's really important. Beating Seifer isn't that."

"Heh… you're right," Hayner said. "Oh. The Wicked Witches have your undivided attention again tonight? Or this weekend?"

"You know what Larxene's like. Though apparently she's off somewhere with her friends this weekend so I might catch a break for once."

"How about you come to the Struggle practice this Saturday then? You must want to vent out at something sometimes."

Roxas, although he did enjoy Struggle, wasn't really into beating people up just to let off some steam. Besides, it looked like he'd have Heartless for that, provided that they appeared regularly. "I'm not sure about participating, but I'll come cheer you on."

"Guess that's better than nothing," Hayner grinned. "We'll stop by the Usual Place too. We haven't been there in ages."

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

><p>At lunch break, Roxas and Hayner sat on the roof together, just hanging out; to be honest though, it was just a chance to get away from everything. Hayner usually brought enough food for two people since Roxas would rarely get time to make himself something to eat. As far as they were concerned, no one was in need of knowing Roxas' home situation.<p>

"You seem different, you know," Hayner suddenly remarked.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Roxas asked, sneakily moving some of the lunch towards his backpack for Jacques and Gus to grab while Hayner wasn't looking.

"I don't know. You just seem… a little more cheerful I guess."

"What? Am I always so emo?"

"If I'm honest, yeah." Hayner lay down on the bench. "You look like such a sourpuss usually, but today you're looking a lot better. Kinda like… you feel like you've got a purpose, or something like that."

_You hit it the nail right on the head Hayner_, Roxas thought. "I don't really feel any different."

"Hmm… could just be me. You did totally blank out Sora when he tried to talk to you this morning."

"You know that we're not friends anymore. I don't see why I should have to talk to him."

"There's the sourpuss I know!" Hayner laughed. He then yelped when Roxas' fist connected with his stomach.

"And for that, I'm not paying for your sea salt ice cream this weekend."

"Aww come on Roxas!"

What Hayner would never know was that Roxas was feeling a bit apprehensive. He had noticed that his crystal had flickered a little bit when they passed Sora; not strongly, but it was a flicker. Roxas had high hopes of believing that the crystal was just responding to something else and not really suggesting that ex-best friend Sora Fujimoto was really a Kingdom Knight. Then again… it wasn't as if he could choose who to work with in this sort of situation. What if Sora was still that selfish brat he knew back then…?

"You know," Hayner drawled, "It's kinda weird."

"What is?"

"All these people talking about having weird dreams or feeling really tired and sluggish just at really random moments. Makes you wonder if there's some sort of epidemic going 'round."

_You wouldn't believe me if I said that it was Heartless eating up all your energy_. "Maybe it's just people running themselves down collectively."

"What? And it's affecting everyone else like a placebo effect?"

"Maybe. It's like yawning. You yawn if you see someone yawn, even if you're not tired. It's not impossible."

"Just entirely improbable," came a voice from the stair entrance. The two freshmen looked over; to their surprise, the school's proclaimed "ice prince" was standing there. "Sorry, I came here to escape some people. I ended up overhearing your conversation."

"Euh… that's okay," Hayner said awkwardly. Squall Leonhart's reputation preceded him; he was indeed as intimidating as people had described him with that mysterious scar, sharp glint in his eyes and a stance that just oozed with stoic acerbic energy. Roxas didn't dare look at Squall's face.

"Since I'm here, do you mind if I asked you something?" Squall inquired. "There's been a rumour that there's a guy running around pretending to be a superhero. He's been appearing at about the same time these moments of sluggishness are occurring. Would either of you happen to know about it?"

Roxas hoped to god it wasn't obvious he was tensing. Someone saw him?-! As Dream Knight?-! "No, not really," Hayner had answered. "I mean, I was at the Sandlot when that strange thing happened, but I did feel like there was someone else there…"

"But you didn't see them?" Squall asked.

"No. I didn't," Hayner replied. Roxas now felt Squall's eyes on him.

"I wasn't anywhere near both places," Roxas said. "My stepsister called me the first time, and I was at home the second time those things happened. I didn't feel or see anything."

Squall's stare didn't seem to leave; Roxas was too busy looking at his feet to notice his crystal hiding under his wristband was sparkling violently. "Alright. Thanks for the help," Squall said at long last. "See you around." Almost as fast as he had appeared, Squall had disappeared back into the building, leaving Roxas to freak out over whether or not he had been recognised while in the Dream Knight getup. _What the hell?-! What the HELL?-!_

* * *

><p>He was still inwardly freaking out about it even now after school had ended. What if… what if someone had seen him and even recognized him as the guy in the caped crusader guise?-! It made him a bit fearful to just think about it. His stepfamily and his friends and everyone else would give him such grief! Especially since he didn't object to wearing a pair of HEELS! Just as he turned the corner into the suburbs of Twilight Town, he felt Jacques and Gus climb out of his bag and onto his shoulder. Fortunately it was very quiet for a Thursday.<p>

"No Kin'dom Knight?" Jacques asked.

"Sorry guys. I couldn't find one at my school." He then sighed a bit. "Though it's strange since one of those Heartless things must have attacked the school yesterday." _Surely it couldn't be Sora… even if the crystal was responding, it wasn't very strong at all…_

"Strangestrange," Jacques murmured. "Suresure Kin'dom Knight be deredere."

"I guess the Kingdom Knight we're looking for had come from somewhere else…" Roxas sighed softly. He could probably handle a few more Heartless on his own, but he was pretty certain that eventually the Heartless would get too strong for him. He needed to act. Fast.

"Looklook where?" Gus asked.

"Guess we'll just have to look wherever there's trouble," Roxas said. "I mean… Heartless can't attack that often, right?"

Spoke too soon. Jacques' ears started twitching uncontrollably and a sense of cold dread washed over Roxas just as he passed by the local playground. "RoxRox!" Jacques yipped.

"I know…" He turned his head towards the playground; there were a bunch of mothers and one or two house-husbands with young children, but standing above them all was a pair of very large boots, sucking up all of their Imagination in great strands of dark smoke. Roxas didn't even think as he ran over, pulling the keychain fastened around his wrist from under the wristband and flinging his bag into the nearby bushes. _No one messes with families and gets away with it on my watch._ He skidded to a halt. "Gate to my Heart, _open_!"

He felt the cold spark inside his crystal bloom inside his hands, enveloping him in the snowy winds as his clothes were blown away. His eyes closed.

The transformation began with the powder blue body-hugging bodice. This was followed by the dark blue leggings, powder blue chaps and white boots the glass soles and heels. Next were the handless sleeves that hugged his arms all the way up to his shoulder, the silky powdery blue glistening like snow. The glass pauldron materialised on his left shoulder, and white gossamer bustle appeared from the materialised dark blue belt with the crystal in the centre. The dark blue glass brooch with diamonds appeared at the point of the v-neckline of his bodice, and from that grew the sparkling dark blue cape that hung off his left shoulder in a shimmer of stardust. A dark blue ribbon was tied around his neck and a single black headband materialised in his hair, a bright blue heart crystal attached to the left side of his head.

He opened his eyes. Both of his hands went over his crucified heart crystal on his belt and from it he shaped the light into the Stroke of Midnight Keyblade and gripped the handle with his right hand. He swung his blade in a 360 degree turn around him, a crystalline light made form to three pure white links attached to a glass slipper charm and a clone of his blue crucified heart crystal. Still holding the weapon, both hands were pressed over his heart while the Keyblade's teeth were pointing to the floor. "Shining like the night sky star, a Faithful Heart. Dream Knight!" Victory pose: one arm outstretched above him, palm skywards. Weapon hand lowered, the tip of the shaft barely touching the ground. Feet closed together in a ballet dancer's first position.

The Boot Heartless had taken an interest in him now. Jacques and Gus both swallowed hard. Roxas just stared at it hard. "Anything you can tell me about it?"

"It scary?" Gus suggested.

"Dere two-a-dem?" Jacques added.

"Scary. Two of them. Not to be overestimated," Roxas concluded. "Good enough for me." He jumped out of the way just as one Boot Heartless tried to stamp on them; Roxas dispelled the Stroke of Midnight since it was getting in the way. Ultimately he was thankful for the fact that becoming Dream Knight seemed to help his acrobatic skill immensely. "And unwieldy. I need to get them away from everyone else…"

"B-But how?" Gus asked, clinging to Dream Knight's cape. Roxas frowned a little. _I can't put them in danger…_ _especially not with Gus' leg…_

"Gus, Jacques, can I use the Fairy Godmother's wand in a battle situation?"

"Fairy Lady's stickstick?" Jacques questioned. "ZyukZyuk, but how-"

"I just have to wish for it, right?"

"ZyukZyuk. Dream Knight just gotta say 'Fairy Lady's Majick'."

Roxas translated that in his head as: 'say Fairy Godmother's Magic'. "Got it." He took a deep breath, watching as the Heartless Boots started to correct themselves. He put his hands together as if in prayer. "_Fairy Godmother's Magic…_" He felt a soft warmth burn in his hands at saying the words, like he was holding a new born star. As he parted his hands, the long slender white wand from last night appeared in the air. He took hold of it with his right hand, waving it like a conductor's baton in the air, a trail of sparkling blue and silver light and snow crystals marking where it had once been. _Okay Roxas… think… what can I do to stop these Heartless from hurting everyone…_

"Dream Knight! Heartless! Heartless!" Jacques screeched.

_That's it!_ Forgetting shame –because by now he had figured there was no way anyone could possibly recognise him as Roxas Swift in this form– he cried out, "_Bibbidi~!_" The crystal at the tip of the wind started to glow faintly. "_Bobbidi~!_" The crystal now glowed much more violently, a bright light emitting from it. "_Boo!"_ Just as it appeared that the pair of Heartless Boots were going to crush the Kingdom Knight, the crystal released the light energy it had been storing, the cold projectile colliding with the pair and freezing them where they were. Roxas used the chance wisely, noticing that the tendrils of shadowy smoke and dissipated. Everyone in the park was free. _Thank you Fairy Godmother._

He took the chance now, running as fast as he could towards the Heartless before they could wriggle themselves free from their icy casing. "_Kingdom Enchanted Step!_" Roxas' glass-soled boot sent the Heartless up into the air with a flying kick, meaning that the Kingdom Knight had a chance to dismiss the wand and summon the Stroke of Midnight Keyblade.

Little did he know that not too far away from where he was a figure in black was watching the Dream Knight intently.

Roxas landed on his feet, allowing his Keyblade to gather magic before lifting the point skywards and started to spin rapidly to cause the ball of light that would soon open up to catch the Heartless when they came hurtling down towards him. "_Dream Knight…_" The light suddenly gathered up into a bowl shape and caught the Heartless Boots, encasing them in a large ball and shrinking itself around them, causing the Heartless to contort with it. "_Dream… _**SPARKLE!**_**" **_With a large bang, the ball of light exploded into a frenzy of glittering fireworks, destroying the Heartless Boots. Roxas felt his body skid to a halt mid-spin, but rather than fall to his knees this time he managed to stay upright though he stumbled a little. _I really need to get better at this…_ _Not very impressive if I keep falling onto my ass._

"Jacques, do you know where the Imagination is leaking from?" he asked the little mouse; the two mice and managed to cling onto Roxas' costume, though it seemed that Gus had struggled the most thanks to his injured leg.

"Dere! Dere!" Jacques pointed at a little girl that was still exuding dark smoke around her. Roxas sighed, going over to her and starting the healing process. The poor girl was just like him.

No mom, a parent that seemed disinterested and a distinct sense of loneliness. Roxas' grip around the handle of the Stroke of Midnight tightened. "It's okay… at least you have a dad… and that he cares about you." He smiled lightly as he heard the girl's name being called out to. He picked her up and put her on the bench; she had been hiding in the bushes, probably crying. He patted her ginger locks. "Just keep the faith, okay. Even when it looks like he doesn't care, just believe that he does."

He heard applause from behind him. Roxas stood up suddenly, turning swiftly. It was a tall figure in a black coat with a hood, the fabric clinging to what looked like a skeletal body. Roxas gripped the Stroke of Midnight even tighter. "Jacques… Gus… get down…" he whispered to the mice. They nodded, both using the Dream Knight's cape to drop down onto the bench, saying nothing just in case the figure was a human of this world. "Who are you?" Roxas demanded.

"Aw are you going to be this hostile only after first meeting?" the figure drawled; his voice sounded gravelly. "Then again… I didn't expect you to be friendly upon first meeting." He raised his hand up and in a burst of flames a large round weapon with eight spikes growing from the metal appeared. Roxas suddenly held his weapon up, glaring at the stranger.

"What do you want?!"

"Just going to give you some friendly advice." Roxas yelped when before he could even react, he was blocking an attack from the figure. Even though they were so close, Roxas couldn't see the man's face, except for two cat-green eyes peering through the opening of the hood. "Stop meddling in something you don't understand kid." He leaned forward. "And try not to fall onto your butt."

"Wha-?!" Roxas screeched when he felt his feet slide under him, gracelessly colliding onto his bum. The man chuckled sardonically and turned on his heel.

"Some Dream Knight… you don't even have half the grace as the lady." Another sarcastic laugh. "She's chose a real dud this time."

Roxas sat up, growling angrily as the man walked away… and inexplicably disappeared in a dark cloud of smoke. "That guy… what the hell is his problem?!"

"Dream Knight! Dream Knight!" Roxas looked down, noticing the mice that were trying to push him up with the little strength they had. He smiled weakly and scooped them up into his hands, dismissing the Stroke of Midnight for now. Jacques looked up at him in worry. "You 'kay'kay?"

"Yeah… don't worry." He forced himself to stand on his feet. He could hear the sounds of a worried father come nearer, and the little girl behind him start to stir. Roxas was quick to hide, watching from the bushes as the small families started to come around and look around in confusion. But he stayed until father and daughter were reunited. He smiled quietly to himself.

_So what if I'm not what's expected… that right there is something worth fighting for._ "Hey… let's go home you two."

"ZyukZyuk," Jacques and Gus chorused, clambering up to his shoulders. Roxas nodded his head, grabbing his bag when he got the chance and dashing off, jumping up towards the rooftops when he got a chance. He had a lot to think about… but there was one thing he was certain about.

If fighting Heartless and saving Imagination meant protecting those families and smiles, then that was a cause worth fighting for.


End file.
